Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

The Labour Party does not agree to the arrangements proposed by Government for dealing with this important matter. This is a motion from the Government asking the Dáil to approve the terms of the EU-IMF deal and all of the contents of the programme documents, which were circulated after the deal was negotiated and concluded.

There are a number of reasons we are opposing this arrangement. First, the motion the House will debate was only circulated 11.40 last night. It is probably the most important economic motion to be put before the House and it was circulated only late last night, even though it had been talked about in the media and Government spokespersons had been saying since last week that there would be a vote on this today. Second, only two hours are being provided for the debate and the vote on what is the most serious measure brought before the Dáil in a long time and we are required to address the contents of the documents, the restrictions which are being applied, the various conditions for the moneys which are available and the political issue, which is that this is a bad deal negotiated by a Government in its last days that seeks to tie the hands of the succeeding Government for the next three to four years.

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