Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)

It is less than a week since the people voted on the fiscal treaty - the austerity treaty. Almost as soon as the votes had been counted, Government sources began to leak that the Government was seeking a better deal on the bank debt on the back of its referendum victory. The Taoiseach has told us that he spoke to Ms Angela Merkel on Friday, but he has refused to tell us what she said to him. Yesterday the spokesperson for the German Finance Minister rejected firmly the Government's advances and said firmly that Germany saw no need for movement. That is hardly surprising, given the refusal by the Taoiseach to pursue these issues since he took office.

One of the critical matters at this point relates to the interpretation of the vote in the referendum. The Government's European counterparts have interpreted the outcome of the Irish vote as an endorsement of the policies of austerity and bank bailouts. This is hardly surprising, given the Taoiseach's support for these positions. The authorities do not realise or perhaps have chosen to ignore the reality that a large section of the citizens in Ireland who voted "Yes" did so through gritted teeth in the face of Government and Fianna Fáil scare tactics. The strong "No" vote and the acknowledged reluctance of a section of "Yes" voters show that a very large percentage are opposed to the Government's austerity policies and the hand-over of Irish fiscal powers to the European Union.

It is up to the Taoiseach to fulfil his referendum commitments to remove the burden of the banking debt from taxpayers and initiate job stimulus projects. The Government promised jobs, investment and stability, on which Sinn Féin will be holding it to account. Fine Gael and the Labour Party have famously reneged on all of their major election promises and must not do so on their referendum promises. They should not regard the result as an endorsement of their austerity policies.

I have said to the Taoiseach before, albeit not in a personal manner, that he needs to stand up for the interests of Irish citizens. It is not acceptable for him to continue to sit on the sideline in the hope some other state will negotiate a deal from which Ireland could benefit. For example, the Spanish Government is seeking EU assistance in dealing with its banking crisis to avoid heaping the burden of bad banking debt on the shoulders of its citizens, as Fianna Fáil and the Green Party did in this state.

The Taoiseach may recall that Sinn Féin has argued consistently for the banking debt to be kept within the banking sector, separate from sovereign debt. Until last week, the Taoiseach rubbished this idea. I welcome his apparent and belated adoption of Sinn Féin policy. Sinn Féin was the first party in the Dáil to argue that the current level of Government debt was unsustainable. We all now acknowledge that the debt needs to be reduced significantly. There is a compelling case for the writing down of bad banking debt. However, this can only be secured if the Government seeks it and follows up with a very serious political effort in this regard.

In January the Taoiseach told the Dáil that he had never sought a write-down of Irish debt and that we would not have the term "default" written on our foreheads. At some point he needs to spell out when he changed his position on this issue. He knows by now that if he does not seek a debt write-down, he will not get one. He needs to spell out exactly how he plans to convince European leaders to agree to a fair deal for Ireland. Some proponents on the Government side argue that the Taoiseach does not want to show his negotiating position. However, he is showing it to us when he says his policy is working and that Ireland can and will play its part, etc.

The informal summit had as its focus job creation and growth. When the Taoiseach came back with the treaty - I read his speech again - he never once mentioned job creation, despite my challenging him on that occasion. We have argued consistently for a focus on job creation and growth, which need to be central to the debate. One cannot cut one's way out of a recession. The jobs and growth strategy needs to be central to any strategy to deal with the current economic crisis. I, therefore, welcome the Taoiseach's late-in-the-day conversion to the jobs and growth agenda.

The Taoiseach promised clarity during the referendum campaign, but he seems to be arguing that austerity and stimulus can go hand in hand. They cannot; it is not possible. It is interesting that throughout the debate the Government has blamed officials at European level for spreading stories, as it did this morning, although it makes full use of officials to engage in spin, as it did last week. It seems no firm conclusions were reached at the informal summit, as is clear from the Taoiseach's notes, except that the attendees at the crisis meeting agreed to call another crisis meeting.

In the Taoiseach's statement he pays tribute to the steadfastness of the people. I agree with him. We are no mean people. We have the ability, culture, history, tenacity and determination to survive this crisis. We have survived worse in our proud history.

The Taoiseach notes that this crisis has not been easy for anyone. That is not true. The golden circle and the elites are still doing very well indeed. It is working people, the plain people of Ireland, who are carrying the weight of the Government's policies and the Taoiseach must deliver for them. He needs to honour his referendum commitments.

The urgent crisis facing almost half a million people in this State, and God knows how many millions across the European Union, is unemployment. We have the added problem of emigration. We need to see some urgency from Irish and European leaders in tackling this crisis. As I stated previously, the Government also needs to remove the burden of banking debt from Irish citizens and it needs to initiate genuine jobs growth initiatives rather than rhetoric, talk of it or the election promise followed by referendum promise.

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