Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The point is that if a Government is willing to use leverage there is a far greater chance of getting the necessary deal.

The Government says it could not get a better deal, but we will never know that because it did not ask for a better deal. It is impossible to know the capacity for a deal unless it had pushed for that particular capacity.

The sad fact is that every citizen of this country will pay dearly for this deal. They will pay for it through the household charge, water charges, the universal social charge, increases in PRSI, and the various stealth taxes whereby Government policy on mobility grants, welfare, and domiciliary allowance is being changed to ensure that individuals who were entitled to those three to five years ago will no longer be entitled to them.

Unfortunately, this State still has a debt-to-GDP ratio of 120%. The key determinant of our ability to come back from that debt precipice has not been changed. That is the reason the people at home listening to this debate will see that Fine Gael, Labour and Fianna Fáil nationalised private debt.

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