Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Opposition for its support for the amendments. I have no wish ever to confuse the House or speak in any way that is not clear. Sometimes, however, it is important that I put the exact wording on the record.

By way of explanation, what we are talking about here is a 1996 initiative by the World Bank and the IMF called the HIPC initiative, the purpose of which is to provide debt relief for extremely poor countries. More than 20 countries have qualified for relief under the initiative. In the case of Somalia and Sudan, Ireland had lent them money through the IMF and the idea was that we would relieve them of that debt and nullify the amounts involved. A Central Bank deposit was used to pay off the debts but the Central Bank is not allowed to spend money that should be spent by the Government. That is considered to be monetary financing, which the ECB does not allow. A technical ruling by the ECB found we should compensate the Central Bank for the sum it spent to relieve the debts of Sudan and Somalia, which is €6.6 million. There is no legal mechanism to do that without passing these amendments to the Bill. To enable everything to remain legal, avoid the possibility of monetary financing, comply with the ECB rule and help Somalia and Sudan to be relived of their debt, we are proposing these amendments. I hope that makes it clear.

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