Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate on this exceptionally important and worrying issue. Sinn Féin is completely opposed to the promissory note arrangement. I refer, of course, to the so-called deal that was rushed through Dáil Éireann last week and that has been trumpeted by the coalition and its erstwhile partners in this debacle, Fianna Fáil, as a positive development and a sign that we have somehow turned a corner. It is almost as if the Government and Fianna Fáil expect the people of Ireland to express a collective sigh of relief about the fact that we are finally on a magical road to recovery. The reality is different. The truth is that what happened last week will not give rise to one iota of financial relief for middle or low-income families, the self-employed, small to medium-sized businesses or the almost 500,000 people who are on the live register. Rather, the so-called deal means that we will still be obliged to pay two thirds of the cost of the promissory notes without the capital sum owed being reduced. In other words, we will now only have to pay a mere 66% of the money we did not even owe in the first instance.

This deal will have major ramifications for our society and future generations of Irish people. If one lifts the veil of hype and spin put on the deal by both Fine Gael and the Labour Party, what emerges is a long-term, catastrophic arrangement that will tighten the chains of serfdom around the necks of an already financially stretched population. In Tuesday's edition of The Irish Times, Fintan O'Toole quoted the American writer Michael Lewis as stating that "normalising a freak show is now a meaningful part of the job of being Ireland’s finance minister".

Some 1.8 million workers are now expected to pay back €30 billion of private debt that was never theirs in the first instance. We are informed by the Government and Fianna Fáil that this is a good deal. The context to this matter is set by the huge and disproportionate weight of private debt that was socialised, or lumped on the back of every man, woman and child in this country, by Fianna Fáil. Deputy Michael McGrath stood up in this House and sheepishly welcomed the deal on the promissory notes, while his party leader, Deputy Martin, expressed qualified optimism for the future. People would do well to remember that it was senior politicians such as Deputy Martin, a former Minister, who landed us in this mess in the first place.

Politically, Fianna Fáil must endorse the deal. It has no other option because it was responsible for setting this entire series of events in motion. That party's interests are not compatible with those of the Irish people and the Irish nation. Rather, its primary aim is to perpetuate the myth that bailing out the banks and paying back the bondholders was the only show in town. In this scenario, Joe and Mary Public would shoulder the cost of what is, by any standards, an exorbitant level of private debt, even though, to begin with, their permission to allow this to happen was never sought. Fianna Fáil has no other option. It must continue to peddle this myth, or lie - call it what one will. Were that party to concede, in hindsight, that it had made a great error of judgment on the infamous night when all of these events began to unfold, it would be akin to committing political suicide. Fianna Fáil's sole concern is its own survival. Everything else is secondary. Fianna Fáil will, as we are all too well aware, go to any lengths to cling to power and political office.

Fine Gael and the Labour Party, enthralled by Europe and ideologically committed to the worst aspects of market capitalism, are not much better. They are too willing to sacrifice the future of Irish people, and their children in turn, for a6 pat on the back from some sophisticated European bureaucrat.

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