Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

I am glad to see Deputy Cregan is in fighting form and to learn that Fianna Fáil is not responsible for the Greek tragedy. While the Labour Party supports this Bill, it is legislation which should not have had to come before this House. The Bill commits us to support Greece up to €1.5 billion in loans on a bilateral basis. It is important we do this because Greece is currently in serious danger of defaulting on the first tranche of loans that are required to be paid by tomorrow. In that respect, some countries have already made their contribution to the fund. We require legislation to do so and so our loans cannot be given until the end of the month. I would like to hear from the Minister when replying when the first tranche is likely to be made.

While we would prefer not to have to do this, it is important to acknowledge the principle of what we are doing in solidarity with other members of the European Union. In many ways, this is what is at the heart of the European project, namely, solidarity between the member states of Europe who should seek to pursue peace and prosperity. That was the origins of the European project. Whatever else we say about what is happening now, this is a benchmark and an important moment with all countries in the eurozone coming together to bail out a member state that has fallen on hard times, harder than most. In many ways, Greece is the prodigal son because not alone did it misgovern its country, it told lies to the European Union and provided false statistics on its misgovernment. Whatever about Fianna Fáil misgoverning this country, in so far as we can gather, it has not falsely informed the European Union of the statistics in that regard which means we would at least be able to address the issue as it stands. The Greeks went a step further than we did.

While this legislation is an urgent response, the situation can be traced back some time. The Taoiseach has during the past month been attending summits in Brussels on a fairly regular basis. Usually a summit is held once every quarter. However, the Taoiseach is away today, was away last week and will no doubt be abroad again before this economic crisis is dealt with. What I find quite unacceptable is that despite all this toing and froing to Europe by the Taoiseach he has not found time to brief this House on the discussions he has had with Heads of State in Europe in regard to Ireland's reason for supporting these measures. We are speaking here not about €1.3 billion but about the stabilisation mechanism which will require up to €7.22 billion, also committed to in principle at this time. These are large sums of taxpayers' money.

There was much debate in this House when we introduced the bank guarantee scheme and on recapitalisation of the banks. The biggest issue on the European plain is the Greek crisis, whether it will default, be forced out of the eurozone, what will be the future of the economic and monetary union if this happened and what would be the future of the European Union yet not once has the Government seen fit to come into this House or the Seanad and share with us its views or those expressed by other members states, in particular eurozone member states, on this issue, which is totally unacceptable. Parliament has a responsibility to hold Government accountable, as provided for in the Constitution, of which I am sure Deputy Mansergh is well aware. He also knows well that the Lisbon treaty places new requirements on every member state, irrespective of whether they have a constitution like ours, to hold their governments accountable for the decisions they make, yet we have not had the slightest opportunity to hold our Government to account. We are now pretty much faced with a fait accompli . This has been agreed by all countries, including Ireland. All that is required of us now is that we put our stamp on it. While I accept it is right that we put our stamp on it, this might not be the stamp we would put on it had we been consulted on the matter.

We are elected by the people to represent them in this House and to ensure that the Government, when it goes abroad, reflects in its decisions the views of this House. One cannot have a purely executive Government that operates on its own. I believe that this business shows a lack of respect for all things European and a lack of structures in both Houses for dealing with matters European. The manner in which the Executive behaves is totally contrary to the degree of integration that has taken place between the various states of the European Union, through various treaties since the Maastricht treaty in 1992. That is one of the fall-outs from this decision. It is hoped that the Taoiseach will, rather than expect us to quickly enact legislation within a day and a half, following which he will attend the next summit in Europe and sign up to what he wishes, address this House and keep us informed about what is going on. This is not how these matters can be addressed in the future. We will make bad decisions if this is what we continue to do.

Tonight is the first occasion on which we had an opportunity to discuss this matter. We will, as a Parliament, have to put our foot down to ensure this does not happen again in response to future crises. We understand that crises occur. Members should recall this started as €500 million euro before rising to €750 million and then to €1.3 billion. The legislation now refers to a maximum of €1.5 billion although, at the same time, the stabilisation mechanism will increase the figure further to €7.22 billion. Moreover, all this is happening at a time when we are tightening our own belt.

My concern is that the proposed measures are very harsh on Greece and others have questioned whether Greece has the requisite ability, given its narrow base. The main focus is on taking money out of the economy by taking it out of people's pensions and payroll and by levying excise duties and VAT, all of which will greatly restrict the ability of the ordinary Greek citizen to make ends meet. The danger is that unless this is combined with a stimulus package to create jobs that will put money into their pockets and into the economy, we will be going down the wrong road.

I refer to the communication received recently from the Commission. Incidentally, the Commission does not appear to have recognised that it must now include all member state parliaments among the bodies to which it sends its communications. Neither this Parliament nor any other was included. The aforementioned communication appears to be going down the fiscal road solely, without consideration for the other requirements.

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