Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

The asylum system is a thing of the past. I presume the asylum of government Deputy Gormley referred to should also be a thing of the past.

The Fianna Fáil-Green Party Government is acting in violation of the Constitution by imposing on the people this disastrous deal with the IMF and EU. The Government, with no mandate or political authority, has signed a deal that amounts to economic treason. It condemns this and future generations of Irish people to economic bondage for many years to come. This has been done not to address the State's deficit problem but to shore up a corrupt banking system and protect international financial gamblers.

Under Article 29.5.2° of the Constitution there is an obligation on the Government to place before the Dáil all international agreements. It specifically refers to treaties which involve a charge on the public. If the Fianna Fáil-Green Party Government persists in refusing to put the IMF-EU international loan agreement before the Oireachtas, it will be acting unconstitutionally.

Article 29.5.2° clearly states:

The State shall not be bound by any international agreement involving a charge upon public funds unless the terms of the agreement shall have been approved by Dáil Éireann.

The Taoiseach's attempt to refute this argument earlier today carries no credibility. It is an external agreement that involves the use of significant public funds in a long-term commitment that will strap future generations into economic bondage.

Even if the Taoiseach's argument were right, there would still be a compelling moral and democratic obligation on the Government to place such a hugely important measure to a vote of the elected representatives of the people. I urge the Government to reconsider its whole approach to this matter.

It will not be put to a vote because the Taoiseach knows his chances of getting it passed in the Dáil are slimmer than those of passing the budget, even with Deputy Gormley's commitment to vote for it. The budget might just scrape through. I hope it does not. This deal will be too much to swallow even for some of those with lead-lined stomachs on the Government backbenches. Deputies Lowry and Healy-Rae now hold the fate of this Government in their hands. It is time for them to realise that Kerry South and Tipperary North are part of the nation. Acting in the real national interest is also acting in the interests of the people of those constituencies. The tidal wave of damage that will be done to our people across the State if this rotten deal and the forthcoming savage budget are passed, will not somehow miraculously bypass Kerry South and Tipperary North.

We now have an insight into how this rotten deal was done thanks to a disgruntled and embittered Minister for Justice and Law Reform who announced today that he is to abandon the sinking ship of Fianna Fáil. He and others can couch it in any terms they like, but those are the facts. On the national airwaves today, Deputy Dermot Ahern said, "I do believe there was an effort to bounce us into a discussion before the Cabinet had even discussed it". Just a week ago, the outgoing Deputy for Louth told us that the prospect of an IMF intervention was "fiction". In today's radio interview, the Minister said it was the European Central Bank that "bounced the Government into the deal". He added:

Those few days were extremely fraught. Quite clearly, there were people from outside this country who were trying to bounce us as a sovereign State into making an application; throwing in the towel before we had even considered it as a Government. They were leaking in the papers that Sunday. There was quite incredible pressure on this country and, if you notice, they're doing the same with Portugal now.

The Minister also said that there had been no discussion at Cabinet over the IMF's so-called bailout prior to the application. This was not clear before, but the Minister said there was no discussion at Cabinet before the application was made. To what type of collective coalition Government responsibility does that point? What an indictment of how the ECB works in the first instance, and what an indictment of this Cabinet and the Government. In spite of all this, however, the Minister says he is still backing the deal. Incredible is only one word to describe this situation, but there are many others. It is certainly incredible.

Thanks to the European Commission, the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund and, above all, a craven Fianna Fáil-Green Government, the people are being sold into economic bondage. We will be burdened with an average interest rate on this loan of at least 5.8% with the Government admitting this can vary according to market conditions. These conditions will almost certainly see this interest rate rise. What are the interest rates for the different elements within the plan? None of that detail has yet been shared with us in this Chamber. We do not know what the real cost of this loan will be because so much information is still being withheld.

The IMF representative has also made clear that funds can be shifted between elements of this deal. In other words, funds supposedly allocated for the public finances can be added to the billions that are to be thrown into the black hole of the banks. Last week, we met with the same IMF figures who appeared on our television screens. I do not know what others have said to them, but we put it to them that they were surely cheer-leaders through all the years of the so-called Celtic tiger. At that time, they encouraged and bualadh-bosed this Government's tax cuts and public spending reductions. They were cheer-leaders in creating the conditions that gave rise to the property madness which burst the bubble and created all that we are having to suffer. Yet they can now stand on the sidelines and present themselves as if they were saviours, here to rescue the situation. They have been complicit in its creation, however, and they should share a significant part of the pain as a consequence. The same applies to the European Central Bank that unleashed billions into Irish banks. Those banks, in turn, let it out free-handedly into the property developers' hands thus feeding into the self same madness that prevailed over many years. They are now ensuring that the only people who will bear the burden of responsibility in having to face up to this and pay for it are those who are absolutely innocent of its creation.

The extension by a year, to 2015, of the time set for the reduction of the deficit vindicates what Sinn Féin said, uniquely among the Dáil's political parties, that the four-year timeframe is totally unrealistic. Yet we were dismissed by the Government and other voices for taking that position. Make no mistake, however, even an extension of 12 months, and pursuing the so-called objective by the method and approach to which this Government is absolutely wedded, will again result in a failure to deliver by that timeframe. The approach is wrong and so is the timeframe. It will not matter what adjustment is made to the timeframe if one does not also adjust one's approach.

This deal protects bondholders while being linked to a four year plan that punishes low to middle-income earners in Ireland and which will devastate public services. It is appalling that this deal is to take money from the National Pensions Reserve Fund to shovel yet more resources into the black hole of the banks.

Sinn Féin's economic recovery plan for 2011, entitled "There is a Better Way", called for the transfer of €7 billion from the National Pensions Reserve Fund for a State-wide investment programme. This would be a 3.5 year employment and infrastructural development package to provide stimulus, to protect existing jobs and to create new employment. Instead, however, we have an EU-IMF deal to raid the fund and bail out the banks. In addition, we have a so-called recovery plan for four years with no stimulus for growth and no strategy for job creation.

I note that on today's Order of Business, the Taoiseach again referred to our proposals as "rubbish". He is someone to label another party's views and arguments as rubbish. He is the captain of a ship with that very name on its stern. If this Taoiseach and Government had shown less arrogance and more willingness to listen to alternative viewpoints and proposals, it would not have led the State into the current perilous position in which we find ourselves.

My party has some experience of negotiations, so I can tell the House this. Looking at this rotten deal, I can only conclude that this Government, and those who have represented us, irrespective of what the Minister, Deputy Gormley, had to say, could not negotiate snow off a rope. The consequences of this deal are so huge that I can only compare it to the Act of Union. In that case there was a vote in the Irish Parliament and the British Government had to bribe Members to vote for the union. The difference is that this Government saves itself the need to consider bribing the Members on the Government benches because it is denying everyone a vote. We will not have a say.

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