Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)

I am delighted to speak on the motion proposed by the Technical Group and I thank Deputy Ross for allowing us to bring this important topic before the House. Deputy Peter Mathews has left the Chamber and there is now not one Fine Gael Deputy in the Chamber. I thank the Tánaiste and his colleagues for attending.

This issue is serious. We must all wear the green jersey. I am a great believer that when we go abroad we are all united and of the one mind. We must be.

I was privileged this morning to watch proceedings here from the RTE studios, where I was commenting on the debate. I was worried because the Tánaiste is not the same Deputy I listened to on the Opposition benches for the last four years, with the body language, the passion and the strong words. There is some mealy mouthing going on, that they know our position on the 12.5% corporation tax rate. That is not what the Tánaiste should say; he should say it is sacrosanct and that they have their own tax schemes, France especially, that are way under 12.5%. I saw the Minister of State, Deputy Creighton, going into the meeting and I wish her well but she needs to wear the green jersey and to stand up and be counted. We must fight for our people.

Other speakers have referred to the fact that we are not getting a fair crack of the whip. We are getting the whip all right but we are not getting fair play. We must stand up, be counted and assert ourselves. I said on that programme this morning that if this does not work out, I see a well-concocted, two-tier Europe coming out of these meetings before meetings and side meetings with these elite people. Deputy Catherine Murphy said we are on the menu, and we are. We are on the afters, the leavings, the scraps. That is not good enough.

We must be proud of our country. We are in trouble and the Government keeps blaming the last Government, and rightly so for a lot of it, but it is time we all stood up and took our position seriously. We cannot accept any diminution of our situation in Ireland. The public will not thank us for it and they will certainly not thank the Tánaiste because he made so many promises. That is his problem. He had such strong language and clever script writers who put it out there what he would do. Hell fire would not be hot enough for the bondholders. He has gone back on so many things that we are worried now that he will cave in on this one. This one is too serious and we cannot cave in.

We are all on the national team and our electors expect us to stand up to Merkel, Sarkozy and Van Rompuy, who will end up like Humpty Dumpty because there will be no wall and no Europe. I should not bring in a children's rhyme but that is what it looks like to have feeble attempts over the last 12 months having these highly publicised meetings and coming up with nothing. There is some engineering ingenuity here and they are creating a situation of desperation so we must have this crisis summit tomorrow and we must sign up. We will get the pickings if we sign up and be good boys.

We have been good boys by crucifying our people with austerity and with this budget. The Taoiseach made a state of the nation address on Sunday night but he would have been better off having a chat with the lads in his local in Castlebar because he might understand more then about the lack of jobs. He mentioned jobs so many times but this budget was anti-jobs and inflationary. The CE schemes were mentioned here this morning and the sooner the Government overturns that decision, the better. The budget was anti-work and anti-jobs, although there were some good points in it and some attempts by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform to deal with the public service. I cannot understand why this business has not been dealt with by the IMF and all. I said the other day Croke Park should be scaled back to the Aviva stadium or Fraher Park in Dungarvan or Tralee. It is a monster we cannot afford.

I am not knocking the ordinary public servants. I am knocking the boys at the top, the cosy cartels, the people who are giving the advice today to the Minister of State, Deputy Creighton, and the Taoiseach. They are never at the table but in the next room, and by God they know how to mind themselves.

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