Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)

Deputy Sean Fleming described the current crisis as financial as opposed to political in nature. We are experiencing a financial crisis that was born out of a particular political model, namely, a neoliberal model with light touch regulation that was predicated on the values of individualism and had greed at its core. Speculators took risks and were supposed to lose because those who lose generally expect to pay a price. That was not the case, however, in respect of Anglo Irish Bank bondholders who received €700 million today and will receive more money next year while the Irish taxpayer picks up the bill. We will pay directly out of our pockets and through the diminution of health and education services and social welfare benefits. Moreover, we will have less scope for investing in the productive economy, including in efforts to develop an indigenous industrial base. People understand the position and are rightly outraged as a result.

We are constantly informed that the Government hopes to re-enter the bond markets in 2013. Decisions taken today will determine what opportunities will be available after 2013. The combined level of personal and national debt is unsustainable and will be unsustainable when we our sovereignty is returned. The choices of how, when and where we spend money will be limited to the extent that we will hardly notice the difference in the decades after sovereignty is restored.

What political model underpins the current debate in Europe and what values support it? Are they the common values espoused by Robert Schuman, for example, who came from the same tradition as the Minister? Schuman called for a democratic model of governance in Europe, one which would develop into a community of people living in freedom, equality, solidarity and peace. I do not know what the European project has become because I cannot detect what values underpin it in the discussions taking place at present.

I did not support the Maastricht treaty, one of the reasons being that I had a specific problem with the convergence criteria, specifically the criterion that the ratio of government debt to GDP must not exceed 60% in the preceding fiscal year. If solidarity is to mean anything, the eurozone countries should adopt the idea of eurobonds. Sovereign states act in their sovereign interests and Ireland should act in its interests if we do not see the values of solidarity and equality underpinning developments in Europe.

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