Luke Flanagan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent)

I propose to share time with Deputy Stephen Donnelly. For centuries the Irish people have strived for freedom. Some 90 years ago this week, an Irish delegation led by Arthur Griffith, Robert Barton and Michael Collins negotiated the Anglo-Irish Treaty in London. For the Twenty-six Counties at any rate, we had achieved freedom and the right to self-determination. To many in the British establishment, this was a day they thought would never and should never come about. The reason for this was that they believed the Irish were incapable of ruling themselves. It took great belief, energy and sacrifice over many centuries to gain the freedom we finally achieved. However, within less than a century we are on the verge of giving it all away. We inherited a system of governance from the British whereby the country was run by elected representatives at national and local level. However, over the past 90 years there has been a gradual erosion of powers for those we elect. We began by removing every power elected members of local authorities have and ceding it to unelected and unaccountable county managers. The logic was that the Irish people are incapable of making decisions for themselves.

In the past decade we have seen wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya to fight for the ideal of democracy. If the USA was to apply its democracy fighting logic to the European Union, we should be expecting bombs any time soon. Over the past months we have seen democratically elected leaders replaced by technocrats in Italy and Greece. We also saw the expressed wish for a referendum in Greece denied because the European Union did not trust the people of one of its states to make the right decision. The undemocratic process does not stop there. Today it is reported that "Merkozy", as the leaders are now called, and various euro technocrats will meet up before the summit on the future of the euro. The deal will be done before any of the other 25 states in the EU have their say. At what point will we say that we will accept no more? It appears our Government has no limits when it comes to being humiliated. In February, it was elected to represent the best interests of the Irish people. Sadly, it does not appear to wish to have a say in our destiny.

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