Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

Will the Government reconsider its position of support for the proposal from the European Commission that draft national budgets be submitted to Brussels for scrutiny and peer review by other member states? Surely this is a further significant erosion of sovereignty in regard to budgetary and other fiscal matters and only further centralises the institutionalisation of what have heretofore been the independently assessed needs of each member state. As the Taoiseach knows very well, we warned against such developments in the course of the two debates on the Lisbon treaty.

Does the Taoiseach not agree that the Commission proposal will mean adherence to the Stability and Growth Pact and that this will outweigh the importance of citizens' rights to health, education and decent employment? Does he agree we will ultimately witness people and public services suffering more and that there will be further erosion of critical decision-making in regard to all these factors, as demonstrated recently, particularly in Greece? Will the Taoiseach not reconsider the Government's position and regard what is now proposed as the thin end of the wedge leading to a serious attack on the sovereignty of Irish citizens?

Will the Government not use its opportunity within the European Union to take to task, in a very serious and concerted way, the Israeli Government, the Israeli state, for the ongoing crimes against the people of Palestine for which it is responsible? I have urged this previously. Has the Taoiseach not noted the recent confirmation we have seen that the Israeli Government once sought to sell nuclear knowledge or weapons expertise to the then apartheid regime in South Africa and that the circumstances of the Israeli state give rise to real concern-----

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