Seanad debates

Wednesday, 19 December 2018

10:30 am

Photo of Rose Conway WalshRose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I can hardly believe that I am standing here to say this today. It relates to the junior bondholders of Anglo Irish Bank who were given the full value of their bonds from the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, IBRC, to the value of €270 million. Those are the banks that we have already paid €35 billion, between Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide. People right across the State have paid that money. The payments are not alone made by the current population but those who will be born in the future, and they will have to pay it for many years to come. That is completely unacceptable.

We were told time and again, including by my own county man, Deputy Enda Kenny, and by Deputy Burton, that it would never happen, that junior bondholders would not be paid, yet now we see they are being paid. The problem I have is that the Government has clearly not explored all of the legal options available to it to stop the payments being made. The junior bondholders are gamblers, speculators and hedge funds. It is very clear to me that they are being put before the interests of citizens, the people who need the money most. There is a pattern here in terms of the priority that is given to banks, bondholders and the elite of this country, who are running the country. I am not sure what the Government is doing.Last week an executive of Irish Nationwide Building Society was given a measly penalty for reckless lending. It is unbelievable and unacceptable. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, said last week that it was a highlight in that the final dividend payment was being paid and it far exceeded his expectations. It beggars belief if that is an indication of his expectations for the ordinary citizens of this country. In the meantime, we have children who are waiting on a political decision by the Government. I will cite only one group of children. A small number of children are waiting for the drug, Spinraza, which would cost a fraction of that amount, yet the Government is dragging its heels and will not make the political decision to grant the funding for the drug so that those children have a chance to survive and have a normal quality of life. The Minister did not even answer the letter that was sent by one of the children, probably the last letter that child will be able to write, because Spinraza is being refused to her. He sent back the photographs. He would not even respond to the letter, and yet we jump as high as we have to jump in terms of the junior bondholders, the speculators and the gamblers who have collectively ruined this country and been have and continue to be facilitated by the Government.

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