Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after “Dáil Éireann” and substitute the following:

“recognises that:

— decisions taken by the previous Government have unfortunately resulted in the inclusion of the promissory notes as a part of Government debt since they were issued in 2010;

— this Government successfully reached a conclusion to its discussions with the Central Bank in February, that delivered on our commitment to put in place a fairer and more sustainable arrangement on the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation promissory notes for the Irish taxpayer and this was noted by the European Central Bank, ECB;

— the agreement represents the best outcome available to the State in relation to the promissory notes and the Government will fulfil its legal obligations and redeem the sovereign bonds issued to the ECB in relation to this transaction as they fall due;

— the current approach with our European partners has led to a number of other positive developments during the lifetime of this Government to date that will serve to alleviate our debt burden, including the reduction of the interest rates on our EU programme borrowings and the extension of the maturities of our European financial stability facility and European financial stabilisation mechanism loans; and

— this is the best course of action in order to restore our international reputation and successfully exit the EU-IMF programme and regain sustainable market access;

acknowledges that:

— the implications of not making such payments, or raising the possibility of refusing to make these payments, are such that the State’s ability to regain sustainable market access could be put at risk with major implications for the funding of vital public services such as the social welfare, health, and education systems; and

— the Government should not act unilaterally in relation to the repayment of sovereign debt and should have regard to the views of our partners who are providing the requisite funding for Irish financial institutions;

and affirms that the approach being pursued by the Government is, given the situation the Government has been presented with, the optimum approach which will produce the best medium to long-term outcome for the State and the Irish taxpayer."

I wish to share time with Deputies Dara Murphy, Jim Daly and Paul J. Connaughton.

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