Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Doyle indicated that there were those who had stated that a substantially altered deal on the promissory notes could not be done. There were others who stated that such a deal should not be done. Sinn Féin said that it should be done. However, the fact is that a substantially altered deal has not been done. The debt relating to the former Anglo Irish Bank has not gone away and the overall debt imposed on the country has become larger. The debt to which I refer had, in light of the interest rates being charged, stood somewhere between €46 billion and €48 billion. In the past week a number of Government spokespersons have indicated that the new interest rate will be an average of 3%. This means that the overall figure will rise to a possible €63 billion or €64 billion. Thousands of people's grandchildren are going to be shackled with that debt and the Government has referred to this as a victory.

I am of the view that the slant being put on last week's deal is completely wrong. There will be some short-term relief in the next number of years. This is good news if people are prepared to look no further into the future. However, we need to consider this matter on a long-term basis. What happened last week smacks of the type of short-termism in which previous Fianna Fáil Governments engaged. The marches that took place last Saturday, organised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, show that it is not possible to fool all of the people all of the time. As the dust settles, increasing numbers of individuals are going to realise that we have been left with a serious debt. The former Anglo Irish Bank may be gone but its debt remains.

I believe in paying every penny of my debts. I include in that the money borrowed to run the State. As a citizen, I am liable to repay some of those borrowings. I am of the view that we should repay every cent of that debt and I have no objection to our doing so. I do object, however, to the repayment of debts accumulated by rogue bankers in the former Anglo Irish Bank and the former Irish Nationwide Building Society. I do not need to rehearse the facts with regard to how those debts were accumulated. I never gave anyone permission to borrow money on my behalf and such permission was never sought. No one in my community or in any other community throughout the State gave such permission and no one benefited from what was done. Now, however, we are all being saddled with this debt.

My party's position on the promissory notes and the former Anglo Irish Bank's toxic debt is very clear. We are of the view that the State should not pay one cent of that debt. This is a legitimate position and it is held by many people, some of whom are now on the Government benches. Sinn Féin believes that the deal done last week is tantamount to a cave-in. Courage is required and people must stand up to those who are imposing this debt upon us. Unfortunately, such courage has not been forthcoming. Instead, the Government is seeking to turn a short-term win into a long-term gain. This deal will not result in a long-term gain. The debts accumulated by the former Anglo Irish Bank and the former Irish Nationwide Building Society were nothing less than private debts. Many forelocks have been tipped and many people have beat their chests and declared that we Irish are all good Europeans. However, the simple fact is that citizens are being crucified with debt. At present, a small state on the periphery is paying 42% of the total debt of the EU. Two thirds of the inhabitants of this island have been saddled with the debt to which I refer.

Those who believe in Darwin's theory of survival of the fittest champion the deal done last week. The captains of enterprise gambled and lost and we are paying their debts. When these individuals were making huge profits, however, we did not reap any benefits. What happened to the agreement reached by the EU last June? I recall the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste coming before the House and stating that a massive breakthrough had been made and that a seismic shift had occurred. What happened to that deal during the past eight months? What happened to the discussions that were meant to lead to the debt to which I refer reverting to private debt? Surely the fact that we are paying 42% of the entire debt of the EU should have formed the basis to any negotiations.

I am not taking a potshot at the Minister sitting opposite. I am merely stating how I and my constituents - I am sure the position is the same for his constituents - feel about this matter. My constituents are of the view that this is not their debt. The negotiations that were concluded last week should have been based on the premise to the effect that the debt involved is private and that it was the subject of a deal done by a previous Government on the basis of an extremely bad decision that was made in appalling circumstances. We have now been saddled with that debt. The Government has a massive mandate and it would have had the full support of the Opposition if it had adopted a position to the effect that this debt is private.

What will happen to the workers at IBRC? Those people have been treated appallingly. They heard about the liquidation of IBRC only on the morning after the relevant legislation was passed by the House. They went to bed with jobs and woke up without them.

A previous speaker indicated that the ECB does not write down debt. Was it asked to do so, and on how many occasions? Did the Taoiseach or the Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform ask it to write down the debt? I have not heard anyone state that such a request was made of the ECB. If the question in this regard was not asked, then why not? The separation of public and private debt is the issue to be decided upon.

There are 1.8 million people in employment in this country. Many of these citizens, particularly those who are on part-time contracts and who work for minimum wage or less, cannot afford to pay the possible debt of €64 billion to which I referred earlier. That is the key point. We should not be engaging in short-termism. We must start making decisions for the long term which will allow us to plan two or three decades ahead. If we do not do so, there will be a return to the way in which Fianna Fáil used to operate.

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