A PROPOSAL from the Dáil’s technical group to have a referendum on the EU-IMF bailout was rejected by Minister of State for Finance Brian Hayes.

“We need to get back to a very honest debate on this issue, rather than pretending that some referendum will solve the problem one way or the other,’’ he said. “It may actually make the situation infinitely worse.’’

Mr Hayes said pretending to people there was a “magic bullet’’ to resolve the issue was fundamentally dishonest and part of “gombeen politics’’.

He said the Government would do everything in its power to renegotiate the terms of the EU-IMF deal. It also retained its ambition to seek a writedown in senior Government debt, but that was not possible because there was not a majority view in favour of it within the ECB.

Finian McGrath (Independent Dublin North Central) said he should highlight the amount of stress which some politicians, senior bankers and developers had caused the Irish people.

“They have tortured our citizens and now we are all suffering the consequences,’’ he added.

“They have left the poor, the unemployed and the people of this country with huge economic and social problems and now we have all to clean up the mess.’’

It was, said Mr McGrath, “a scandal, a shame and a crime against the Irish people and those responsible should be jailed’’.

The State he added, was being dictated to and controlled by the EU and the IMF.

“Despite it not being the people’s fault, the State, supported by the EU and the IMF, is imposing a continued transfer of billions of euros in national wealth from the people to both domestic and international banks in regressive tax increases, cuts to services, pay cuts, redundancies and an assault on workers’ pension entitlements and the national pension fund and through the disposal of national assets,’’ he added.

“Far from being a sovereign debt, this is the illegitimate and odious debt of a handful of private financial institutions and developers.’’

Richard Boyd Barrett (Independent, Dún Laoghaire) said Ireland was facing the gravest economic crisis in its history.

The people suffering from the austerity regime were not bankers and speculators. “They are people who have worked, who are bringing up families . . .who are trying to enjoy something of their old age,’’ he added.

“They did not cause the crisis, but they are being asked to pay for the criminal greed of bankers and speculators.’’

Sometimes, he added, the issue was obscured in technical economic arguments. He said a referendum would allow for a debate on the options available.

“Let us debate the options,’’ he added. “Let everybody set out their stall, so that the whole country can make its decision.’’

Maureen O’Sullivan (Independent Dublin Central) said the technical group’s motion was about democracy. “It is about allowing people in this country decide what they will be paying for the foreseeable future.”

Debate on the motion resumes tonight.