Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I signed this motion, which is a simple one, and as Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan said, it is civilised. I have a patience limit and it is coming near to the end. I am saddened by the absence of a senior Minister from the finance area or even the Taoiseach, because this is important for the people. There is a major disconnect between the phoniness of the words and discussions that are going on in a meaningless noise and the reality of what is happening on the ground in families and businesses.

There is a total disconnect.

Yesterday on the Order of Business I asked the Taoiseach to inform himself by reading The Price of Inequality by Joseph E. Stiglitz and he dismissed it by saying that these economists are 100 to 1,000, that they are all the same. They are not. There are some people who are worth discovering because they have the authority of vast knowledge and study, contemporary and historical. They have something to offer and they are articulate. I bought the book for him today and by the kindness of the Government Chief Whip I hope it is now on his desk. I added an exhortation that while I know he carries heavy responsibilities I think he will find the book helpful.

Hedge fund managers could not believe what happened between 2008 and 2010 when we borrowed, as a nation, through the banking system to pay bond speculators. They said it was absurd. I was elected to this House after taking part in the analysis and research needed to find out what exactly the position was for the banks. There were losses of €100 billion in six Irish banks that was being denied and some people put their heads in the sand and did not want to know. For two years that cost us the ability to get a handle on the problem. Time went by, bondholders were paid and the ECB and the Central Bank of Ireland lent the money on foot of a contrived promissory note for a total of €31 billion. That is odious debt, the losses of the private banking system. We talk about money following the patient in the health service but in this instance private bank losses are made to follow the innocent citizens today and into the future. It is absurd. I am embarrassed by it.

I paid for myself to go as part of a parliamentary delegation to the finance committee in the Bundestag in Germany. I was embarrassed there by the deferential timidity of my colleagues here who were afraid to tell the truth. It was unbelievable. The Chairperson of the Bundestag finance committee was startled when I explained that if the German people were asked to bear the equivalent of €75 billion on the German scale, which would be €1.2 trillion, they would not believe it. The Chairman of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, asked me to tone down my comments and not to tell them because we are the good boys. It is pathetic.

I am not saying we should have a war. After World War Two, in 1953, Germany’s creditors said, without even being asked, that they must help these people because they are living in rubble, they are orphans and they are damaged. They helped the Germans. They do not want to see what is happening here. They do not want to see an Aviva Stadium full of elderly people with no medical cards, who cannot go to hospitals or doctors and get their medicine. One has to visualise the Aviva Stadium full of people rather than say 45,000. One has to visualise two Croke Parks full of young people who are in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and so on. It is embarrassing. I did not want to be among cowards when I joined this House. I want people to be authentic and passionate about the people of Ireland. Deputies should forget the jerseys of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Labour or whatever, take the badges off and work for the people of Ireland.

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