Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

I am disappointed the Taoiseach did not comment on that legality. However, there is a more fundamental point at issue here. Can we stand over a process where the people have been excluded at every stage of negotiation and ratification? The public has not only not been consulted; they have been ignored. Equally, the major policy omissions in the treaty are also too big to ignore.

If this treaty is the end of the debate on the structural reform of the economic and monetary rules of the European Union, then the public must be consulted. It is clear that the Taoiseach will come back in a few weeks to say that ratification through the Oireachtas is likely to survive the various legal challenges which will immediately be launched. Is he willing to come back with a much more significant proposal which shows the people that they are being listened to?

I have said consistently before that our major problem with the treaty is that it does not go far enough. It elevates a side issue, the imposition of fiscal controls, to a central position and ignores the agenda Europe needs. The Fianna Fáil Party supports a significant increase in the economic role of the European Union. In response to the crisis, Ireland has favoured greater federalism in key areas. While this marks a departure from the Irish position of the past 20 years, it is the only reasonable way to respond to the crisis.

There are two major reforms without which this crisis will not be overcome and the predictions of long-term austerity will be realised. The European Central Bank is designed for the German economy of the 1970s and has failed as a central bank for a diverse currency union. The need to change its mandate and expand its bond buying options is more important than any single item on our national agenda. Greater fiscal union, which Fianna Fáil supports in principle, can only work if it involves a commitment to significant transfers within the Union. A union which controls a budget of 1% of collective income is not and will not be a fiscal union. We need to challenge the advocates of a control led solution as without increased investment, there will be no growth. These matters were not seriously discussed in preparing the treaty. They were not pushed by Ireland or other countries which were intimidated by the strength of the fiscal control agenda.

If we want to renew public confidence in the European Union, we must renew our approach to working together on European policy. The lengthy tradition of the pro-European Union parties consulting on the national approach to negotiations was abandoned and there has been too much partisanship. I appeal directly to the Taoiseach to work on forging a new pro-EU consensus, one which is based on taking people's fears seriously and promotes an agenda ambitious enough to tackle a crisis of this scale.

As I have stated repeatedly during the past year, I believe in the great European ideal as the best and perhaps only route to sustained prosperity for the people of Ireland and Europe. I am the only party leader to have gone beyond generalities by setting out an economic case for saving the euro. My party's gut reaction to the European Union has always been and will always be that we see it as a solution rather than a problem, and as empowering sovereignty rather than threatening it. Our core instinct is to support common initiatives, even if we believe they are not perfect. We will not take any position which will damage the standing of the European Union and its ability to work on behalf of its citizens.

Instead of letting Monday be the point from which everyone is summoned to take opposing positions, we need a real discussion about the way forward. The treaty must become a part of a wider series of urgent initiatives which are capable of tackling the crisis. As no wider action agenda has been promoted, the treaty is currently a stand-alone measure and the end of a process. If the Taoiseach agrees that any solution to the economic crisis must involve the European Union, he cannot keep to this position. To do so would be a betrayal of the hopes and urgent needs of the citizens of this State and the European Union as a whole. There is no credibility in promising that something will eventually happen once the treaty is ratified. It must not be ratified in a manner that is dismissive of the public. Once we lose the foundation of pro-European Union sentiment among the people, we will not get it back. Once we use legal devices to avoid any public consultation on the treaty, it will be almost impossible to get more urgent changes adopted.

See this speech in context