Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

-----if we do not pass the Bill, this will give rise to difficulties in respect of some ¤15.5 billion tomorrow. That is why I will be supporting the legislation, which contains a number of draconian measures. The enabling Act comes to mind when I contemplate the kind of powers that are going to endow the Minister with plenipotentiary control and that will ensure he will not be obliged to come near the Oireachtas to seek approval for setting prices, if he so wishes, in the context of asset transfers.

I am concerned by the fact that the enforceability of what is proposed in the Bill may not be challenged. There is no doubt that if our proceedings stretched beyond 8 a.m. the queue of those wishing to challenge the constitutionality of the legislation in the context of property rights would run from here to the Four Courts. I have no doubt that the Minister has been forced into this. I do not doubt his bona fides in trying to obtain the best deal for Ireland. We will always support him in that regard because - as is the case across Europe in general - this country's level of debt is unsustainable. That is a fact and one can chalk it down. It might be 50 years before anyone will admit this but it is a fact.

Spain may well have to go under before those in Europe will admit the need to restructure the way in which we consider matters of this nature. They will have to accept that we should be looking to the European economy rather than to European inflation. They will also be obliged to accept that the reason for this is the EU has too many constituent parts, that the latter all have either higher or lower levels of inflation and that, unlike Ireland, they cannot just be cast adrift. We have the benefit of hindsight and, in that context, it is obvious that none of us would have wanted to guarantee the banks in 2008. However, the Minister, Regling and Watson and so many others have admitted that there was no other option. This was because Europe told us to take a particular course of action. I know the following because the late Brian Lenihan Jr. informed me that it was the case. On the morning of 29 September 2008 Ireland was going to burn the bondholders but by that night France and Germany were not prepared to put up with this. I know that to be a fact. We are where we are and we are trying to deal with this matter as best we can. On the night of 29 September 2008, the Irish people saved the euro. By God, they require some level of help as a result of what they did. There are so many people in Europe who are now up the creek but we are too small to matter.