Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

I wish to share time with Deputies Harkin and Gormley.

While I welcome any opportunity to critically discuss the European Union, I find the format of this debate wholly inadequate. If the EU is to emerge from this crisis and come into line with public preferences, a series of focused debates is needed on a range of issues which have been expressly identified by people across Europe as being unacceptable. These issues include the neo-liberal trajectory of the EU, ever-increasing militarisation and the endemic democratic deficit. If people in Europe are to feel they are being listened to, these debates must have a real, visible and timely impact on the institutions and operations of the EU.

As Deputy Quinn said, with only five minutes to discuss the current situation in the European Union and the constitutional treaty, where does one begin? To start, the EU constitution is dead and the Government needs to get through the grieving period and move on. Sinn Féin wants Ireland to move on and begin a long overdue debate on the future of Europe. This debate must be based on an acknowledgment that the referenda in France and the Netherlands, and opinion polls from other European countries, demonstrate that the current socio-economic model, namely the content of the EU constitution, is not working and is unacceptable.

Despite the defeat of the constitution, Sinn Féin felt a responsibility to launch an information campaign on it last month. Our initiative was in response to the Government's White Paper on the EU constitution. The Government is marketing its document as a factual account of the contents of the constitution but it is essentially a piece of propaganda, the primary purpose of which is to sell the constitution. The White Paper attempts to do so via the editorial strategy, which is to extract articles from the constitution and paraphrase selectively. It frequently dismisses or diminishes the significance of substantive changes. This is no surprise, as the Fianna Fái-Progressive Democrats programme for Government asserts that "any perception either within the EU or outside that Ireland was other than a fully committed member would be deeply damaging".

The policy pattern resulting from this foundation is one of a refusal to criticise EU measures, even those in direct opposition to the expressed wishes of the Irish people. By contrast, Sinn Féin is not afraid to stand up against EU measures which are damaging to Irish interests. Our policy on the EU is one of principled, critical engagement. This means that we decide to support or oppose the many and complex developments in the EU, each on its own merits, using the criteria of democracy, transparency and accountability, equality and human rights compliance, the effect on Irish sovereignty and the potential for promoting Irish unity.

One such area is the Hague programme. The time available to me to give it the attention it requires is grossly insufficient. Suffice to say that the Hague programme is fundamentally flawed, with its flaws exacerbated by an action plan which front-loads contentious measures relating for example to the transfer of sentenced persons, judicial and police co-operation ahead of measures relating to minimum standards in the taking of evidence, pre-trial detention procedures and work with respect to police standards. Elements of this action plan are dependent on the EU constitution. In light of its defeat, a moratorium should be introduced on the passage through this House of all further EU measures stemming from the Hague programme, pending the outcome of a full review and debate. I reiterate the demand I have made on several occasions, particularly on the Order of Business, for the need for a full debate on the Hague programme, the necessity for which has been acknowledged by the Minister's colleague, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy McDowell, and his Department officials. I ask the Minister to include in his closing remarks a guarantee that this debate will take place and an indication of the date. It is important that we debate it. That is something that none of us would be either averse to or afraid of.

Sinn Féin has an electoral mandate to engage with EU policy by challenging the democratic deficit and all those policies that are adverse to Irish interests and promoting an agenda with quality and a meaningful act of citizenship within Europe. I stress a meaningful act of citizenship within Europe because that is what I believe we should be about. In the coming period Sinn Féin will continue to encourage genuine debate in this House and throughout the country on the European Union, its current policies and neo-liberal policy trajectory, and on the quality of the Government's representation of this and engagement with it. I look forward to the Minister's reply at the conclusion of the debate.

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