Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)

-----while the Minister is handing them away and tying the hands of future Governments in making financial decisions.

The Minister will tell us he had no other choice, that his hands were tied and that everything is the fault of former Ministers. There are always choices and decisions that can be made. Otherwise, why is the Government there? Is Deputy Noonan a puppet for the EU-IMF or for the ECB or is he an Irish Minister standing up for Irish interests?

The document published yesterday does not stand up for Irish interests. I appeal to the Minister to stand up for Irish interests, take the crash course in negotiation that I commended to him and do the right thing. A couple of weeks ago, Fine Gael and the Labour Party said there could be substantial renegotiation of this deal. It does not need to be tweaked on a quarterly basis. It needs to be fundamentally restructured. The programme of austerity does not work. It is not working. Judging from the comments of the previous speaker, Fianna Fáil have realised we are going into default. The other parties on this side of the House realise we are in that trajectory. The Minister also knows we will have to restructure our debt. This exercise is a huge act of political fraud and betrayal. It should not be happening in this way.

This deal needs to be voted upon in the House. What is happening is wrong. Although the Government has a majority in the House, I want Government Deputies to walk through the lobby and vote for the same deal they jumped up and down about when in opposition and said they would not be bound by. "Labour will not be bound by this document" was the chat from Deputy Éamon Gilmore. I want him to walk through the lobby and vote for the document he held in his hand that day. There should be a vote in the House. The people deserve little less.

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