Asking the Big Question

25th February, 2009

I raised on the order of business today the dark question of the solvency of our nation. I did my best to chose my words carefully but feel that I have a responsibility to raise this issue in the Oireachtas. The status and rating of our government debt is an issue that I have raised before. This week our debt is been rated as been of the same quality as Brazil and again as been more risky than Israel.

While our government is saying everything is fine, the financial markets are indicating differently. As you may recall, the same happened with our banks and the markets were tragically proven correct here. I point to the flight of capital last week, the comments of the German Finance Minister and the continual assessment of the markets of our government debt as been very risky as factors that must be discussed openly. The Leader did not respond to these points and I plan to raise them again tomorrow.