Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Last February, we were told that the promissory note deal would save Ireland €10 billion over the next decade or so but this so-called €10 billion saving in Irish borrowings was a comparison saving against a theoretical and totally impossible promissory notes payment schedule. The Irish Government was faced with finding €9.3 billion to pay the Cowen-Lenihan deferred schedule of 2012-14, which was an impossible and totally ludicrous commitment. Even though the promissory note arrangement was a scheme devised by and repaid to ourselves, the task of finding the huge tranche of real cash required to satisfy the ECB was something no Government could have delivered. Conversely, we now have to spend €1 billion per annum in real additional payments on our growing national debt as a result of the promissory notes deal and the pain of austerity continues for all citizens. Recent figures, quoted previously by the Acting Chairman, Deputy Mathews, suggest that Ireland has paid an astonishing 42% of the total EU bank recapitalisation programme.

Like my colleague, I warmly congratulate the Ballyhea movement on its continued pursuance of the disastrous changes made by the Fianna Fáil-Green Party Government, strongly supported by Fine Gael in September 2008. The transfer of massive private sector bank liabilities onto the backs of the Irish people was the core element of the promissory notes deal. Clearly, the Government did accept Frankfurt's way after two years of shameful grovelling by the Taoiseach, Deputy Kenny, the Tánaiste, Deputy Gilmore, and their Ministers.

Since delivery of the first Fianna Fáil austerity budget in October 2008, devastating levels of austerity have been inflicted on our people. Almost €1 billion has been cut from the education budget, €4 billion has been cut from the health budget and almost €4 billion has been taken from the social protection budget. We have also witnessed the decimation of the capital programme budget from €9 billion in 2008 to its current level of €3 billion. The financial situation in Ireland remains bleak in light of our desperately high levels of indebtedness, with a debt to GDP ratio of 125% and low inflation. This huge burden will remain with us through to the 2016 general election and into the early 2020s, which is a shocking legacy for our people on the 100th anniversary of the struggle for independence.

The debates on the promissory notes during February and the bailout exit last week involved blatant and unashamed attempts to rewrite history by the Taoiseach and the Fine Gael Party. It was the Taoiseach, Deputy Kenny, and Fine Gael who when in opposition delivered the 2008 blanket bank guarantee hand-in-hand with Fianna Fail, the Green Party, Sinn Féin and others. The then Fine Gael spokesperson, the Minister, Deputy Richard Bruton, and later, the Minister, Deputy Michael Noonan, following the sacking from that post of Deputy Bruton, supported the Fianna Fáil-Green Party Government at every turn. It is notable that Fianna Fáil continued in its support of Fine Gael through the most recent renewal of the blanket guarantee and the bailout exit strategy.

When on the backbenches with the Minister, Deputy Rabbitte, and I during the debate on that fateful night in 2008, the Minister, Deputy Noonan, asked if the crisis was one of liquidity or insolvency. The then Minister for Finance lied to us about this matter. Although the Minister, Deputy Noonan, felt it was a solvency issue, he voted in favour of the guarantee. That is the reality of what happened in this House and the reason we have no confidence going forward in the ability of a Government in which Fine Gael is a leading partner to resolve the shocking situation facing our people in fiscal terms.

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