Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

For some weeks, the storm clouds have been gathering and people have shown through peaceful protests that the cumulative burden and the exhaustion that has come over them and divided society have come about on an unfair basis. The events of last Saturday were completely wrong. To imprison someone in a car in such terrifying circumstances is appalling. Let me remind the Ministers of State opposite that 100,000 families are terrified because they live in mortgage imprisonment as a result of what was meted out to this country following the financial collapse in 2008. That, too, is wrong. Suicides have taken place and sickness has been visited on these families, some of whom have fallen apart as a result of the intolerable burden of distress.

The issue before us marks the arrival of another of the cumulative consequences of this distress. As we speak, €25 billion of promissory bonds lie in a drawer of the desk of the Governor of the Central Bank, Professor Patrick Honohan. These bonds came about as a result of a whipped vote that followed virtually no discussion in February 2013. It is wrong that national debt was created from bank losses. We should dare to imagine the correct resolution of this issue. We should bring 26 Deputies, one from each county, to Professor Honohan's office, take the bonds out of his drawer, tear them up and tell Mr. Draghi that they are not deliverable by the Irish people.

See this speech in context