Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I commend the work carried out by the Irish team in negotiating and restructuring the promissory notes last week. I must pay tribute specifically to the Economic Management Council comprising the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. What we witnessed last week in the Chamber is a reflection of what the Government has done since it came into office almost two years ago, which is to establish the country's economic sovereignty, restore our international reputation and carry significant reforms on how government operates. The legislation introduced last Wednesday night was not crisis emergency legislation as some have been led to understand. It had been prepared for several months. Events on Wednesday afternoon forced it to be carried through in an emergency fashion. What we saw was an issue of sequencing, but there was no crisis legislation going through the House and it is disingenuous of any Member to claim it was. Far from it, it had been prepared many months beforehand. It is a reflection of the Government's strategy which is proving to be working.

When the Government came into office, the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade called every Irish ambassador home to inform him or her that there was a new Government in office and that the message coming from the country was going to be different. Concurrent with this, there were meetings with ambassadors based in Ireland to inform them Ireland was taking its business seriously.

It is welcome that Fianna Fáil, the author of this legacy that we are tiding up, agrees with the Government's position on the promissory notes. The reality, however, is that it had no choice. So bad was the deal it had put in place that any marginal saving was an improvement on it. It would have been better if Fianna Fáil had gone to some backstreet illegal moneylender to set up the promissory notes deal because, apart from getting a better one, it would not have had the legal standing of the legacy the Government inherited on day one.

Some Members of the Technical Group have been consistent for many years. Deputy Joe Higgins may have a view with which I would not agree, but he has been consistent during the years. Some might say he has the consistency of a stopped clock in that he is right every now and again but by accident of consistency rather than analysis that applies to real life. He has, however, been consistent and I take his remarks as genuine. However, there are other Members of the Technical Group who should know better than what they have been spouting inside this Chamber, but their priority is getting their newspaper column headline right for Sunday rather than the operation of the country.

When it comes to Sinn Féin, what can I say? Other than denying the net savings and gains from the deal put in place, if Sinn Féin engaged in the peace process the same way it has engaged with this legislation, we would still be back in the early 1990s such is its intransigence and denial of our position. The European Central Bank does not do write-downs as it is illegal.

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