Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

What we are participating in is a charade. This is not a Committee or Report Stage debate on a Bill. It is a process that would be fitting in the old Stalinist Parliament in Russia, in which the Politburo came forward with a fixed agenda, whereby it proposed and the Members of the Parliament loyally disposed. This is not a democratic process. The elected Members of this Parliament are being dictated to by an agenda devised in Brussels. It is an increasing feature of governance within the European Union as the crisis in the financial system and the capitalist economies of Europe has worsened. It is now increasingly the case that decisions are being made by diktat by forces outside the State, many of which are unelected. Therefore, Jean Claude Trichet who answers to no voter dictated to the Minister on Saturday that the €3.6 billion allegedly owed to gambling bondholders in Anglo Irish Bank should be paid and the Minister capitulated and agreed to this. The Treasury Secretary of the United States, Mr. Geithner, dictated-----

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