Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The international investors and foreign newspaper writers who backslap the Government for restoring the international credibility of the country, are the same people captured by the financiers who profited in the billions from the taxes of Irish workers.

This country will sink as quickly has it has risen from the ashes unless we achieve a write-down on our debt generated by bank losses. I listened carefully to the Minister for Finance recently explain that he was having a hard time pleading for a bank debt deal from his European colleagues. The reason he explained he was having a hard time was our bond yields are lower than those of many of the countries that would have to contribute to such a write-down; this is pathetic. The Irish people and media, by and large, trust the Minister when he speaks; they trust his words and admire his Limerick wit. The Irish people also, by and large, trusted Bertie Ahern when he spoke; they admired his words and were dazzled by his political acumen.

As long as the economy grows and the population's spending power improves, statistics relating to our national debt which we cannot afford will be a distant mirage for most people in their day-to-day lives. I refer to medical cards, carer's allowance, young people abroad, hollow JobBridge placements and all the factors that make for a tough life at the moment. We should get real with Europe. The false dawn being celebrated this week by the Government parties will not last forever. Eventually the large economies of Italy and Spain will be insulated to an extent that the ECB will no longer be required to step in and bail them out. Why does anyone believe that at the next time of crisis, the ECB members will look more kindly on this nation? Of course they will not. All the hard earned economic gains that taxpayers will have made and the suffering will be in vain and we will be thrown to the wolves again, as we were in the past.

Starry eyed diplomacy where we seek the love and adoration of our partners in Europe or our financiers in Frankfurt has not served this nation well. The lowering of our interest rates on our official sector bonds, the restructuring of the promissory note - which was a given but I do not have time to show how that occurred - and the extension of the maturity on our loans are all welcome events, which have improved the overall debt profile of this country but they are by no means even close to sufficient. How can it be that the Taoiseach, Tánaiste or any Minister has not told the House or the Irish people during the debate that they will fight with every ounce of their being for a write-down on Irish bank losses debt? Even the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy Brian Hayes, who is a declared candidate for the European Parliament elections, is silent on the issue. He recently publicly confirmed: "I just think now is the time where we continue to negotiate and it's better that these are done, effectively, behind closed doors." We have heard that for three years.

Amazingly, other candidates running for Europe include Eamon Ryan, the former Minister, who has openly acknowledged some of his ministerial colleagues were asleep in bed when the Cabinet secretary phoned them to ask whether they supported the guarantee of €400 billion of bank debt on the backs of the Irish taxpayer. The same former Minister described Morgan Kelly's who made a calculated assessment in May 2010 as a "prophet of doom" for claiming the country would become insolvent unless it abandoned its policies to bail out the banks. Four months later, the Merrion Hotel was booked out and teams of economists from Frankfurt, Brussels and Washington launched their economic takeover of the State. That was 28 November 2010. It was a snowy and cold night and I was in RTE was Myles Dungan. The six Irish banks owed the ECB €135 billion at the time and that is why these people were here. It was shocking. Mr. Ashoka Mody, chef d'équipe of the IMF element of the troika has said Ireland should get a debt write-down. Six weeks ago in Davos, Ken Rogoff said we should get a debt write-down and it is the right thing for Europe to do.

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