Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)

All my adult life I have been a keen supporter of the EEC, now the EU, and the various different treaties. We have had strong, good leaders in Europe over the years who seemed interested in fair play for all member states even though the number of member states at such times might have been fewer. There were some good deals out there - under CAP, the European Cohesion Fund, and so on. That was all fair and good.

We voted for different treaties and included in those treaties are strict regulations regarding financial and banking behaviour. Obviously, there was no regulation in Ireland. We had a regulator who earned a considerable salary who did not do his job and who should not have got his bonus because he broke his contract. As far as I am concerned, it is as simple as that.

European countries had more strict regulations and that is why they lent the money so recklessly in Ireland, which fuelled the property bubble to an enormous degree. I stated consistently, and I believe it to be a fair assessment, that the couple of European countries that lent that money so recklessly here were 50% responsible for what happened in the banking crisis.

What happens when we get into trouble is that we go to our partners. Among those same partners, a common belief in recent years of which we have heard so much was that Ireland was punching above its weight, suggesting that we had some additional influence in decision and policy-making processes in the EU. However, we now know the real position. That was never the case but it was what we were led to believe. It was what we were led to believe when we were asked and being encouraged to support the second Lisbon treaty.

Given that the guidelines set out under that treaty and the Maastricht treaty were not adhered to, why has this Government and its predecessor accepted a diktat from Europe that ordinary people must bail out those who got us into this mess? At least half of the cost should be imposed on the European banks which lent so recklessly. I cannot understand why they are getting away it. They will continue with this behaviour as long as they are allowed to do so. We must stand up to them because the interest rate the EU is forcing on us is exorbitant in comparison to that charged on the funding by the IMF. We have to say "stop".

The public is confused and disappointed by the actions of the new Government, which promised that it would not spend another cent on the bailout. I recognise it has to tidy up what happened but we would all be fully behind it if it stood up to these people because they are being unfair. It is also unfair to attack our corporation tax rate. Our EU neighbours should analyse their own rates of tax in terms of their attractiveness to foreign direct investment. What is happening is not fair and it is time we stood up and rejected it.

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