Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The public viewed it as a toxic institution and not unreasonably placed a substantial portion of the blame for our economic crisis at its door. That said, however, I am mindful of the hundreds of workers who learned in the small hours of the morning that their jobs were gone and their contracts had been torn up. That is no way to treat any set of employees, particularly those who are employed by the State. The State should be the trailblazer for high standards in employment practices. The experience of the workforce in Anglo Irish Bank indicates that the Government does not aspire to such standards. While some of those employed in the bank were on outrageous salaries, for the most part its employees were certainly not bringing home pots of gold.

The handling of the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation Bill 2013 was farcical. Regardless of the types of negotiation that had been taking place with Europe or the leaks to the media, of which the Government press office appears to have been aware in advance of 6 February, what happened in the Dáil was not the way to do business. The Government showed an enormous lack of respect for this institution, for Deputies and, most important, for the people we have the privilege to serve. It treated the Dáil and Seanad as nothing more than a rubber stamp. That is not acceptable. The Taoiseach should consider how he looked to the world outside this political bubble when he conceded an additional 45 minutes to scrutinise a Bill Deputies had only set eyes on an hour earlier.

There is a justifiable feeling among the general public that they have been let down, but this appears to be lost on the Government benches. Fine Gael and Labour Party Deputies came into the Chamber with their chests puffed out and clapped each other on the back for doing a great thing. The truth, however, is that private debt should never have been saddled on the shoulders of Irish citizens and, while Fianna Fáil walked us into this mess, Fine Gael and the Labour Party are making sure we do not get out of it for the next 40 years. Some €60 billion and counting of taxpayers' money will not be spent on public services, infrastructure or tackling the many environmental and social challenges we face.

It is said that we should walk a mile in a person's shoes. I have been trying to understand why Government Deputies describe this as a great achievement. During the course of this debate we have heard talk of great strides being made and the Government digging us out of the hole of debt. Let us consider these so-called achievements. Perhaps Deputies consider it an achievement to transform the promissory note - an IOU - into long-term Government bonds. Perhaps they think it a great achievement to change the promissory note, which was a legally dubious instrument because of the ban on monetary financing, into sovereign debt with robust legal status. The Government will argue there will no longer be a need to find €3 billion every March to repay the promissory note, but balanced against that will be the interest payments of up to €1 billion per annum in two separate payments. Unlike the promissory note arrangement, we know these moneys will not remain within the Central Bank or the State over the longer term. We are told this, too, is an achievement. Kicking the can 30 or 40 years down the road is supposed to be an achievement. Relying on inflation to eat into the principal of €28 billion is also supposed to be an achievement. There is a particular irony in this claim given that the very institution with which the Government negotiated - the European Central Bank - has the fight against inflation as its primary mandate. So much for that achievement.

In bread and butter terms, what will this mean for budgetary relief for the men and women of this country? Will it ease austerity? Will there be second thoughts on the property tax, child benefit or respite care grants? None of the above is on offer. Perhaps Government Deputies regard that as an achievement.

The bar was set very low during the course of this negotiation. My party leader and I have both stated in this House that the Taoiseach was doing a disservice to this State and its people by consistently parroting the mantra that we will pay our way and will not have the word "defaulter" written on our foreheads.

He positioned himself in that way. When we consider that was the political decision taken by the Government, it is little wonder that it could not go in and argue for a write-down. I do not buy for one second the fairy tale from the Government that it kept away from this issue because it was faintly ridiculous or patently unachievable. It kept away from it because it did not have the political courage or standing to go in and make a straightforward argument about an IOU the State could not and cannot afford, an IOU which, as admitted by the Minister, was legally dubious. The Government failed to do this.

There is work to be done on the issue of the legacy debt, but I have little confidence in the Government's ability to prosecute a successful negotiation on that issue, given how lame its attempts and "achievements" have been on the promissory notes.

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