Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the group from Ballyhea in the Gallery. I also welcome the many people who sent e-mails in support of this motion. Collectively, I estimate that approximately 100,000 e-mails have been received by Deputies during the past week. This is not just a small number of people who are expressing concerns.

I congratulate our colleague, Deputy Joan Collins, on having the courage to take a High Court challenge. The judgment exposes how undemocratic the decision was. We should be fearful.

This motion was intended to be inclusive of the Government so that we, as politicians, might collectively ask for a write-down of a debt that is not ours. The Government's ambition was stated to our colleague, Deputy Donnelly, today when the Taoiseach told him that it would not accept this motion. By not answering the question, the Taoiseach actually answered it, in that he will not seek a write-down on behalf of the people of the State.

While I welcome the fact that the Minister of State, Deputy O'Dowd, is present, I get the impression that Private Members' motions have become a matter of drawing the short straw. This is an important issue. We are approaching the point of no return at which these bonds will be sold. There seems to be a lack of interest, as only two Government Deputies, including the Minister of State, are in the Chamber.

The London debt agreement was signed in February 1953. It was essential to the recovery of Germany in particular, but of Europe generally, following the Second World War. In an extraordinary act of solidarity in much more difficult circumstances than those that exist today, Germany saw a 50% write-off of its national debt, which had risen to more than 300% of GDP by 1938. The agreement included an extended payment schedule of decades for the balance. The last payment was made in 2010.

No one thinks of Germany as a defaulter, which is the threat that is dangled in front of us when there is any question of a mutualisation of this banking debt. We are constantly told of the German memory and fear of hyper-inflation, which was a major problem after the First World War. Hyper-inflation did not recur after the Second World War because Europe acted in solidarity, with the assistance of the US.

Now is the time for Germany to recognise that solidarity is necessary again. Jürgen Habermas, the German sociologist and philosopher often described as one of Germany's most influential thinkers, has argued that solidarity in today's terms means debt mutualisation and that crisis management decisions have become long-term, unquestionable policy diktats. He observed that the euro must be saved at all costs except that which is necessary to save the euro. The excessive intergovernmentalism at European Council level has frozen the Union from being able to respond effectively. Habermas says that Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Finland should accept short to medium-term negative effects of wealth redistribution, as it is in their longer term interests.

Regarding the aftermath of the London debt agreement, Professor Tony Fahey of UCD stated: "There were many reasons why the economic aftermath of the Second World War became so positive within such a short period." He referred to how France recovered through inflation and how Britain's recovery was slower because it wanted to protect sterling as a reserve currency. However, the country that was exceptional in all of it was Germany.

We can learn lessons from history. One is that solidarity helped to build the EU into a union of equal members. Once the crisis hit, this was shattered by the intergovernmental approach of a small number of stronger states. It continues to be the approach taken. We may not be in the aftermath of a major world war, but let us be clear, there are many casualties of this crisis. Unemployment in Ireland has increased from 4% to 14%, with a persistently high level of long-term unemployment.

See this speech in context