Ciarán Cannon (Fine Gael)

Applying a very conservative interest rate of 5% to that figure, our nation of 4 million people will have to come up with over €15 billion per annum to service this debt. Bearing this in mind, it is difficult to comprehend why the Government's four year plan makes no provision for servicing that debt. It is like preparing a household budgeting plan and leaving out the mortgage payments.

What is even more frightening is that this evening the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Martin, confirmed on RTE television we would continue to pump money into the banking black hole using our precious National Pension Reserve Fund savings.

It is time to stop the IMF negotiations in their tracks, call an immediate general election and let the people decide if they want to burden future generations with this debt. We must also realise that when the negotiations recommence, Ireland will be in a very powerful position and have the upper hand. The ECB is petrified of a contagion; it simply cannot allow the Irish bushfire to escalate into an EU forest fire. It must be told we will do a deal but on our terms alone.

It is time Members in both Houses who claim to have the best interests of the people at heart followed the advice of the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, who said today that European politicians needed the courage to make private investors share the risk in future debt crises in the eurozone and show the financial markets who was in charge. She asked a valid question: do politicians have the courage to make those who earn money share in the risk or is dealing in government debt the only business in the world economy that involves no risk? In her statement I hear echoes of Joseph Stiglitz's statement several months ago when he questioned the wisdom and, most certainly, the morality of privatising the gains and socialising the losses associated with the banking system. I will not support the imposition of the banking burden on the backs of the people without first giving them the full unvarnished truth and the option to decide their destiny. That is what democracy is about. It is most certainly not about prostituting our children's future at the feet of a bunch of misguided and irresponsible financiers who are not willing to live with the consequences of their actions.