Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The council says that the Government is taking risks with the Irish economy in certain areas, breaching the rules it championed. I have no love for those rules, as Professor McHale knows. We campaigned against them but we are very satisfied that every party in the Houses wants the rules changed in one way or another. Now, however, there is a false debate because nobody wants to comply with these rules. Everybody says they need to be changed. When they are breached it is no longer an issue. It is like a road where the natural speed of 60km/h is changed to 20km/h. It makes no sense. My view is that it is not a big issue that the Government is breaching these rules. There is a question about the teeth the council has, if that is the narrative. How does Professor McHale explain the European Commission's approach to the budget, that it is broadly compliant?