Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The previous Government of Fianna Fáil took out a €30 billion mortgage, roughly speaking, in the name of Irish taxpayers which was to be repaid in a period of ten years. It included a very significant and high rate of interest. At the time, Fianna Fáil took a two-year holiday on the payments of the interest so that when a new Government was formed in 2011, every March, €3 billion had to be paid in respect of that mortgage. If I were some of the Deputies in the House, that would not concern me. It would not concern or bother me because what is simpler is to abolish it all. As a country which was in significant financial difficulty, we have reached a much better place but we have not solved all of our problems. Renegotiating and restructuring the loans was a far better option than the default option which was suggested by a number of people quite wildly-----

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