Martin Mansergh (Tipperary South, Fianna Fail)

It is not easy to withdraw incentives from the market because transactions are in mid-flow and people must also judge what will be the effect and impact on the market. I am not certain that the decisions the Minister faces are as straightforward as has been presented. There was a consensus, which included the ESRI, that Ireland was facing a soft landing based on the argument that it had fewer houses per head of population. The director of the institute acknowledged that on radio earlier. There were scattered warnings but the consensus was in other directions. That is why we all have to learn lessons.

One would not wish these types of experiences on any country or leader let alone ours but when they happen, one should try to derive what benefit one can from them. For example, in the 1920s, Germany suffered hyperinflation and that lesson has lasted for generations. We had a long-standing love affair with property and believed it was an unbeatable asset. I suspect and I hope that we have cured of that for good.

I thank Deputies O'Donnell and Burton for their support for the Bill and their recognition of its importance. There are opinion makers who are sharply opposed to our euro membership and there are even certain economists who skirt around the fringes. A commentator in the Irish Examiner earlier this week suggested we would be better off on the outer fringe with Britain than in the euro zone, given the consequences for sovereignty and the inability to devalue and so on. Devaluation can disguise falls in incomes. It is a better course for us to accustom ourselves with and to internalise the logic of euro membership. Most Members share my view that it is overwhelmingly in our interest to sustain our euro membership. The Bill is not only about that, but also about sustaining the euro itself. European countries must come through this serious challenge to the cohesion and sustainability of the euro. When we overcome our current difficulties, we should understand fully what euro membership means. We had the same problem when we joined the EMS in the late 1970s. We did not immediately internalise the logic of that either but the alternative is to become a "low tax Anglo-American economic dependency". I do not see that as a good future for us.

Without using any phrase that may offend Deputy Morgan, the Sinn Féin attitude to European legislation is relatively predictable. As I said previously, the party in the North would like Northern Ireland to participate in the same currency as the South but that is not feasible. I sometimes wonder about the cohesion of aspects of Sinn Féin economic policy according to whether it is articulated north or south of the Border. It is the Deputy's entitlement to oppose the Bill but it is part of the logic of our euro membership. He can make the argument that euro membership has, in some ways, contributed to our problems and to the problems of many other parts of Europe but, equally, with the problem having arisen - many of us remember the currency crisis of the early 1990s - it is an indispensable and essential shelter for us and it is the way forward for member states. An independent Ireland, perhaps some time in the future a united Ireland in a united Europe, is the way forward.

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