Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

In four minutes, it is hard to know where to begin. Yesterday, our budget day, the German Finance Minister, Mr. Wolfgang Schäuble, had, according to The Irish Times, the temerity to say on the fringes of an EU finance Ministers' meeting in Luxembourg that "the retroactive bank recapitalisation is not probable for the time being. In Germany, we need a change of German legislation," adding that such a step could be "as difficult as a referendum in Ireland". Retroactive direct recapitalisation for Ireland was "not probable," he said. He went on:

I don't see any necessity for this. We think Ireland is doing very well. Ireland did what Ireland had to do ... now everything is fine.

If that is his understanding of where the 4.5 million fellow citizens of mine stand, he needs to clear his eyesight and come over and spend a bit of time here. With families in distress, citizens taking their own lives and families breaking up, how dare he say that?

I am on the Government's side. I have been on the Government's side since I came to this House but nobody wants to listen to the truth. Ireland's debt-to-GDP ratio is not 124%. Ireland's Government-debt-to-GDP ratio is 124%. When one adds in household and business debt, the non-financial corporate debt, as it is defined, it is the highest in the world. We will keep flailing around desperately in a swamp unless we get that swamp drained. Where are our colleagues in Germany, with a remark like that on the day of our budget?

Of course, there were some good things done in terms of the maintenance of the pupil-teacher ratio, the recruitment of teachers, the retention of the 9% VAT rate, etc. That is fine but on the other side, where was the corporate contribution to the position of this country? What about new mothers, the telephone allowance for the elderly and the VHI tax relief cap? The result of the medical insurance tax relief cap, when one takes it for two adults on a fairly modest VHI cover of Plan B Options, is €329 in extra tax they each must pay if they keep their policy in force. For two, it is €658. The multiplier effect, the IMF tells us, of a reduction in spending in the economy in a recession time is three-fold and if one takes out €658, one can multiple it by three to give its contracting effect on the economy for those affected.

I refer to Mr. Wolfgang Schäuble and the so-called partners in Europe. By the way, we have what they call a syndication of creditors in the form of the EU and the ECB and it is those creditors that are insisting that our banks pay back all the money that they lent our banks in order to pay off bondholders. The banks are zombie banks at present and they are unable to clear their loan portfolios and reduce the mortgage and other debts of households and businesses because they have not enough capital. The only way they will get capital is if they get creditor buy-in or participation, and the creditors are the EU, the ECB and the Central Bank of Ireland. Those creditors are the three cogs that all interconnect. There is not a chance of households being relieved of their debt burdens and being able to resume normal spending and investment patterns without those reductions, and there has to be real, honest participation by the EU. We saved the system and we have got nothing for it, and they are telling us we can go and sing for it.

I note a budget document the Government brought out. It is a little pull-out leaflet with the headlines. If one looks at the front page, in the confusion, it looks like the design for a play. There are words such as "international", "available", "deficit", "stimulus", "investment", "growth", "jobs" and "fair", but hidden in the middle are three words - "particular", "people", "pleased". That about sums it up.

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