SEANAD REPORT:STRESSING THE need to get the economic negotiations right, Fidelma Healy-Eames (FG) said some people were advising that Ireland should default on its debt.

“I have never recommended that in my life, but this is bigger than any of us,” she said. Some analysts had spoken of a hole of up to €300 billion. We were looking for €85 billion from the IMF and European institutions just to keep our banks going. We could not afford to pay the annual €10 billion cost of servicing the debt. It was essential that we obtain expert advice to get a better deal from the IMF and the EU, she said. “Otherwise, we haven’t a hope.”

Larry Butler (FF) said the country would be put into penury for the next 20 years if we overpaid for this particular loan. We should not pay “one penny more than 2 per cent for the money that is given to us.” He agreed with Ms Healy-Eames, saying that we must ensure that a crack team was sent in to negotiate the terms of what we would have to repay over the next two decades.

Paschal Donohoe (FG) said he was concerned that the change this country was about to undergo would unleash forces of political extremism on a par with what we have had to deal with in relation to the difficulties associated with the Northern Ireland situation.

He said there was a need for everyone in the political centre to speak honestly. Some inference had been made to Ireland looking at the possibility of default. Other people had quoted the examples of Russia and Argentina as countries that had done that successfully.

He said he would challenge those making that argument to give one example of where a tiny, highly-globalised economy utterly dependent on outside investment had done something like that and lived to tell the tale.

Ireland could not be in the vanguard of some experiment which placed the security of the nation at risk.