Luke Flanagan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

As Diarmuid O'Flynn, a hero and human being - it is good to see there are a few left - noted, for 143 weeks, Ballyhea Says No has been marching in protest against the imposition of the bank debt burden on the Irish people. The most odious element of that debt is the promissory note of €31 billion. In our dealings with the various layers of the EU, the European Council, the European Commission, the ECB and the EU itself, we have met initial strong resistance to offering Ireland a break on this bank debt. We have been told repeatedly that these were our banks, this was our regulator, these were our politicians and developers and this is our problem.

The one area where they cannot make any of those claims is the promissory notes. By 2010, the true picture of the catastrophic nature of what was happening across Europe had emerged and the EU and the ECB had become centrally involved. The ECB could have refused to allow the Central Bank to print that €31 billion to bail out the two zombie banks. Due to its fear of contagion, it did not do this. It made the final decision to allow that promissory note of €31 billion to be printed and the ultimate responsibility lies with it. Forget for a moment the legal question of emergency liquidity assistance to fund the issue of the €31 billion. The bigger issue is why the Irish people should be held accountable for all of that €31 billion plus interest. Why are future generations of Irish people being forced into at least 40 years of debt slavery to pay the principal and interest on this €31 billion when not one cent of it was used for the benefit of the Irish people - not a single hospital bed or classroom or metre of badly needed motorway, nothing. Quite simply, this is not our debt.

We could have been and are entitled to be far more demanding with this motion but we have not been. I will make a few pertinent points. The motion is not seeking unilateral default. It is merely asking the Government at least to ask the ECB to allow the Central Bank to destroy those promissory note bonds. This was not money borrowed to close our budget deficit. It was money printed to bail out banks, bankers, bondholders, international institutional investors, the eurozone and the euro. Burning those bonds would only have a positive impact on the markets and reduce our national debt. The ECB is hiding behind its own rules. These are the same rules it bent and twisted to allow the €31 billion to be printed in the first place.

This Government is long on talk of restoring Ireland's reputation in Europe. We would also like to see that, not the fawning lap dog reputation we have developed lately but the Irish reputation of the Wild Geese - Irish brigades renowned for their courage and fighting spirit in the armies of France and Spain and even further afield in the US and Mexico. In real life, Diarmuid O'Flynn is a sports journalist. He spoke of how, like most other Irish people, he had mixed emotions as he watched the Irish rugby team lose at the death to the all-conquering All Blacks last Sunday. He spoke of how he felt bitter disappointment but also massive pride at how the Irish players had fronted up in a game which people spoke about as an annihilation. Afterwards, the New Zealand coach, Steve Hansen, said, "we expected them to be tough. Every time we play them, they're tough but sometimes I don't know if they believe that they're as tough as they are". This is the only Ireland we know - the Ireland of hard battles on the GAA and soccer fields and in international arenas with our boxers or rugby players, our women and our men.

Ireland never played tough in dealing with the EU and the ECB in respect of the promissory note and never fronted up. A walkover was conceded. Now we are in the ironic position where the very people bailed out by the original €31 billion promissory note will be bidding for these new promissory note bonds. This Government is itself governed by fear. It speaks of making tough decisions. There was nothing tough about taking on the sick, the infirm, the elderly and the disabled and about cutting health, education, the Garda, etc. Taking on the multinationals by introducing a minimal level of corporation tax, taking on the IFSC by adopting the financial transactions tax, taking on its own exorbitant salaries and expenses and thus setting an example and taking on the ECB itself were the tough decisions but the Government has baulked at them all, more concerned about its new friends in the markets and its new partners in Europe than it is about its own people. They might be the Government's partners. In fact, they are its partners as it imposes their demands on the Irish people. We see them as people who, if they had their way, would be our masters. They will not be. We now know why the Government will not even ask that these promissory note bonds be destroyed and, yes, it is because of fear - not the fear of being told "No" but the fear of being told "Yes" and being exposed for its incompetence and cowardice. I commend the motion to the House.

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