Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party)

It must be a bizarre feeling for the Minister to attend eurozone meetings and come out with a fanfare, thinking that matters have been worked out finally, only to find the crisis getting worse. Everyone knows now what the reality is across Europe. The actions of the eurozone leaders are making the situation worse. The establishment is attempting to exploit that crisis because the only show in town is austerity.

I will deal briefly with the signing yesterday of the six pack governance measures by the European Parliament. The Minister's introduction in that regard was a very sanitised version of what is being opened up. What was done yesterday was the institutionalising of austerity and the neoliberal agenda across Europe. I am amazed this has shown up so little on the radar for the media because it is a substantial step in the direction of fiscal unity. I would like the Minister to deal with some of these points.

This deal centralises power into the hands of an unelected European Commission and effectively sets up a scoreboard of austerity. If one does not meet the grade, one is liable for substantial fines. There is the spectre of budgetary surveillance whereby draft budgets will have to be submitted in advance to the European Commission and Council before national parliaments get to see them. How can that be in the interests of the people? With the strengthening of the Stability and Growth Pact, countries that breach targets will now be subjected to fines of hundreds of millions of euro. Countries in trouble will be penalised even further, but that is not all. The extension of that deal and enforcement measures will include other mainstream economic measures such as wage and fiscal policies.

The eurozone leaders are proclaiming, therefore, that this is not only about dealing with deficits but is about liberalising markets and attacking public services, a regime the Minister's Government seems to be happy enough to implement. There is now the spectre that if even a mildly social democratic government should decide to raise taxes to stimulate a bit of economic growth, it will be subject to fines. It is a ludicrous situation. To facilitate that process the European Parliament has moved to a very undemocratic system of voting, a reverse qualified majority. In this instance the Council is presumed to agree with sanctions unless a qualified majority votes against it. This is a very serious situation for weaker countries.

I put it to the Minister that the real reason these dictatorial anti-democratic measures are being signed off and attempts made to implement them is that the establishment is not confident that national governments will be able to impose austerity. They should be worried. Today's strike in Greece, the call for a further general strike there later this month and the movements in Portugal in recent days demonstrate that the people will not accept paying the bill for the misdeeds of others. There is a point when people will say enough is enough.

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