Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to speak on this important debate. I also echo the welcome extended this morning to Ireland's European Commissioner, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn and our MEPs. I welcome in particular to the Oireachtas my party colleague, Bairbre de Brún, MEP, in further evidence of the all-Ireland nature of Sinn Féin's political project.

Members are convened to discuss Europe Day, the official EU celebration of the Schuman declaration presented on 9 May 1950. According to the invitation issued by the Ceann Comhairle, Members have been asked to discuss where they believe Europe will be in 2020 and whether the EU's latest economic strategy, Europe 2020, can lead us to a smart, sustainable and inclusive future. There is a certain irony that this debate comes after a weekend of intense speculation on the ongoing crisis of the eurozone and a discussion, provoked by economist Morgan Kelly, on the origins and impacts of and alternatives to the EU-ECB-IMF austerity programme supported by the present Government.

Before addressing these important matters, I will first remind the house of Sinn Féin's general approach to the politics of the EU. Sinn Féin is proud to be a euro-critical party. While it believes Ireland's place is at the heart of Europe, it also believes it is the responsibility of Government and Opposition to play a full part in EU affairs and to this end, Sinn Féin has long advocated greater attention to EU affairs in public and Oireachtas debates. However, what marks out Sinn Féin as distinct from the other major political parties in this House is that while we support those aspects of European Union policy that are in the interests of the people of Ireland, we are not afraid to oppose those policies which we believe are bad for Ireland. We do not believe that opposition to aspects of the EU project, whether in the form of directives, Council decisions or treaties, makes us anti-European. Indeed, Sinn Féin argues that when it critically opposes aspects of EU policy, it is on the grounds that these policies are bad for both Ireland and the EU as a whole.

Sinn Féin's opposition to the Lisbon treaty in 2008 and 2009 and to the EU-ECB-IMF austerity programme, whether in its Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael-Labour versions, is informed by this approach. Unfortunately, as evidenced by comments attributed to Commissioner Geoghegan-Quinn in The Irish Times last week, it appears that some people still find this proposition difficult to understand. In Ireland and Brussels, there is a view among sections of the political elite that any criticism of the politics and policies of the EU is anti-Europe. Such a view is not only narrow-minded, but used to deflect criticism of any kind. It was a view expressed by many in the House during both Lisbon treaty referenda when Sinn Féin argued that ratification of the treaty would be bad for Ireland and for the EU as a whole. It is now being used against the growing number of politicians, commentators and economists who, like Sinn Féin, believe that the EU-ECB-IMF austerity programme is crippling our economy and society. While I welcome the opportunity to debate the future of the EU and Ireland's role in it, I am not optimistic that it will be a real debate, critically assessing the urgent issues we face.

On those issues, there is no doubt that the European integration project is in crisis. The crisis of the euro, the growing debt crisis across all EU member states and the failure of the European Council, European Commission and European Central Bank to respond effectively to these problems are all evidence of a project faltering under the weight of problems it helped create and, therefore, is unable to resolve.

Contrary to the views expressed by Commissioner Geoghegan-Quinn last week, membership of the euro did not save the country from the worst excesses of recession in 2008 and 2009. Rather, euro membership and the Stability and Growth Pact, along with the failed policies of the Fianna Fáil Party, the party to which Commissioner Geoghegan-Quinn belongs, contributed to the collapse of the Irish and European economies. While Commissioner Geoghegan-Quinn's party colleagues were busy driving the Irish economy into a massive debt-fuelled property bubble at home, across in Brussels her colleagues at the European Commission were busy implementing a neo-liberal economic policy agenda that facilitated the debt-fuelled boom and bust cycle of recent years. They were ably assisted by the ECB, the monetary policy of which further fuelled the casino economics of the boom. Yet we are supposed to believe that the very politicians and policies, both domestic and European, that caused our economic collapse are somehow best placed to get us out of the mess they created. Worse still, we are being asked to cede even more power over economic and monetary policy to the European Commission and the ECB when what is required is to return control over these key areas of policy to this House, which is the true democratic representative of the people.

What kind of fools does the Government take us for? Does anybody believe that the massive bank bailouts and deep austerity measures in the troika's programme and supported by Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Labour Party will help the Irish economy on the road to smart, sustainable and inclusive growth as demanded by the Europe 2020 strategy? Does anybody believe that saddling this State with a sovereign debt of €250 billion by 2014, a shocking debt of €120,000 per worker, will help create employment and reduce poverty? If newspaper reports are to be believed, the senior politicians and officials that met in secret in Luxembourg on Friday night no longer believe in the ability of their own policies to resolve the crisis of the eurozone.

The only way for Ireland and the EU to get out of the multiple social and economic crises that we currently face is to take a radical change of direction. This will not come from the Irish or European politicians who created the crisis. During this week's debate on the jobs initiative, my colleagues in Sinn Féin and I will outline our alternative to the failed policies of the Fine Gael-Labour Government, the European Commission and the ECB. Our alternative will not only get the Irish economy back on track, but in doing so will contribute to an EU-wide economic and social recovery.

Those who care about the European project and Europe's potential to continue as a positive contributor to progressive social policies and a real gathering of the people from among the people on the ground must be devastated by the damage done to the project by the decision of the ECB, supported by the European political elites, to cripple the Irish for a crisis that was not solely our responsibility. It is clear that the ECB fuelled this crisis from the core European states to the peripheral ones. As evidenced in Mr. Morgan Kelly's article, the ECB has forced the Irish to take full responsibility. This fundamentally undermines the European project and the claims of solidarity and European partnership. I appeal to the Taoiseach, those in government and the Commissioner to work with the Tánaiste concerning the diplomatic initiative he announced, in which he discussed joining European partners. I have called on him to speak with the 186 other member states of the IMF and to have an investigation into how the IMF and the ECB managed to allow this massive private institution casino in Ireland, backed by the ECB and international financiers, and saddled the Irish with a level of debt that will cripple our potential.

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