Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This is very important legislation. At the end of May voters will be asked to fill Ireland's allocation of 11 seats in the European Parliament. This is one fewer MEP than before, or a reduction of 8% in our representation. That reduction is unfortunate given that the job of work facing this country is so extensive. When we have something as important as the elections to the European Parliament taking place on the same day as the local elections, there is undoubtedly an element of distraction. Voters will be buried under a blizzard of material from local government candidates. The reality is that it is the European election that will really count for this country and for every household in mortgage arrears or about to go into mortgage arrears, for every household where retired parents are paying out to prevent other loans going into arrears. Only this morning Ivan Yates was talking on his radio show about the non-mortgage debt which is crippling people but which we hear very little about.

Last week, Ken Rogoff said at the gathering in Davos of the richest and most powerful non-elected people in the world: "A debt write-down for Ireland would the right thing for Europe to do." Anybody who has studied Ireland's current position, how we got here and the financial destruction that has occurred knows this is the case and that the two remaining banks do not have enough capital to do the job they need to do, namely, restructuring and writing down their loan books. If they did have sufficient capital, they would be doing it already. It is up to us to elect people to the European Parliament who have done their homework, are articulate advocates for this country and will use those 11 seats wisely.

It is ironic that three and a half years ago, Deputy Joe Higgins, who was then an MEP, briefed the European Parliament perfectly accurately and articulately on the reality of the situation.

The President of the Commission, Mr. Barroso, actually lost his temper when he heard the truth, namely, that €70 billion in private banking sector loan losses being socialised and converted - directly and indirectly - into Government debt or debt held by banks owned by the Government. Deputy Higgins pointed out at the time that this was wrong and he was right to do so. We need 11 individuals who possess the same clarity of mind and ability to articulate and advocate as that displayed by Deputy Higgins to fill our seats in Europe. If we do not elect 11 such people, we will not be able to drain the debt swamp that exists in this country.

On 7 May 2013, an EMU banking conference took place at the Charlemagne Building in Brussels. It was attended by approximately 500 MEPs and MPs from the various European Union and eurozone countries and it facilitated a useful debate in ordinary English. Mr. Barroso commenced proceedings in the multi-syllable, foggy language of aspiration. However, following the first formal presentation delivered by Commissioner Olli Rehn, the President of the Eurogroup at the European Commission and Dutch Finance Minister, Mr. Jeroen Dijsselbloem, and the Portuguese Finance Minister, Mr. Vitor Gaspar, the discussion was opened up to everyone. Deputy Donnelly and I were in attendance and, luckily, I was selected to make the first contribution during the question-and-answer session which followed that presentation. I invite the Minister, his colleagues in the Government and everyone else in the House to view the YouTube clip of my contribution. I felt I owed it to the Irish people to make a robust presentation of the facts in the context of where Ireland stands financially and of the scale of the debt write-down that is required.

Ms Sharon Bowles, MEP, the chairperson of the European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, ECON, agreed with the assertions Deputy Donnelly and I made at EMU banking conference. Ms Bowles is due to retire from her position as chairperson of the committee but that has not stopped her from pressing the case in this regard. Why are we allowing others to do this on our behalf? I would have thought that the Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny, and the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, would have made the point at last week's annual meeting of the World Economic Forum's in Davos that writing down Ireland's debt is the correct thing for Europe to do. I am amazed that our case is being pressed by people such as Ken Rogoff, Carmen Rheinhart, Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman. These individuals have studied what has happened in the international markets and examined how the financial systems in western capitalist markets have hijacked real economies. The latter is the reason 22 million people in Europe are out of work and why 25% of people in Ireland under the age of 25 are unemployed.

My son is in Australia and last night he sent me an e-mail in respect of EirGrid and the 35,000 submissions that have been made in respect of its Grid Link project. He works for a firm in Australia which deals with public utilities and which is responsible for the laying of cables, etc. I will forward his e-mail to the Minister and his colleague, the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Rabbitte, because it provides a useful insight into how matters of this nature should be dealt with.

Ireland has not been served well by the efforts made in respect of the issue to which I refer. Those efforts have been limp in nature and have fallen short. How can I say this? I can do so because nothing has happened. The validity, etc., of Ireland's position has been illustrated but there is a timidity when it comes to putting our case across, which is shocking. There will be 11 seats up for grabs in May and I suggest that we clear out the fog and focus our efforts. Those who win Ireland's 11 seats at the European Parliament must be well-equipped and well-briefed. They should form a unified phalanx and pledge that the exclusive priority will be to successfully negotiate a debt write-down. That is what is needed.

In May 2011 the President of the European Council, Mr. Herman Van Rompuy, was not aware that the €70 billion loan losses of the six Irish banks had been refinanced by means of exceptional liquidity assistance from the euro system. Nor was he aware that these losses were socialised and converted into both national debt and indirect debt in banks owned by the State. When I informed him of the position, he asked whether a paper had been written on the subject. I replied that the evidence was available in the balance sheets of the banks - in both aggregated and consolidated form - and was easy to see. The loan losses to which I refer are not actually in the region of €60 billion to €70 billion, rather they are approximately €100 billion. This has not yet been acknowledged and it is the reason the two big banks are stuck in a shadow world in which it is stated that the insolvency legislation will solve everything. It will not do so. Legislation never solves financial problems. What is required is negotiation in order that debt can be restructured and written down, which is entirely reasonable. If this path is not followed, then the very life is sucked out of businesses and people.

I am not a revolutionary and I am not aggressive. I am persistent and, like Ms Sharon Bowles, MEP, I speak ordinary English. I again plead with Members to view the YouTube clip to which I referred earlier. I am not seeking to advertise myself but the quickest way of doing so is to go to my website, www.petermathews.ie, and follow the link to the six-minute YouTube clip for 7 May 2013. As stated, 500 people attended the EMU banking conference. However, Irish journalists did not arrive until the middle of the day when the free lunch was being served. As a result, they missed seeing what had happened live and were merely presented with press releases. The latter are what I usually refer to as lever arch file préciscontaining multi-syllable words that mean nothing. Those in the auditorium in the Charlemagne Building on 7 May last greeted my six-minute contribution with strong applause. That was the only time that day when someone was applauded.

If those in Government do as I suggest, they will receive applause. That applause will be converted into agreement which, in turn, will be converted into action in terms of the write-down of the loan losses to which I referred earlier. I am confident that this will happen. It is terrible to be obliged to keep going on about something. However, sometimes that is what it takes. A sculpture cannot be completed with just one blow of the hammer against the chisel. Many such blows are required. Even battering rams do not breach the gates of citadels with the first impact. Persistence, patience, good humour and ordinary English are required in order to ensure that things change.

Ireland will have 8% fewer seats in the European Parliament after May. Let us insist that the candidates for Europe should agree a pre-election pledge to the effect that those of them who are successful in obtaining seats will do as I have suggested. What we are seeking is a write-down of €53 billion, some €28 billion of which will take the form of the cancellation of long-term bonds. The latter would replace the promissory notes, which have always been odious, unjustified and lacking in both credibility and validity. The banks will then need approximately €25 billion in order that they can really get on with the job. The €53 billion to which I refer is just over half of the total losses of €100 billion.

I have outlined what is needed in ordinary English. Ireland has an opportunity to create a team of 11 people who can operated in an effective manner in order to win something for the country.

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