Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)

The European Union institutions, supported by the International Monetary Fund, have responded to the crisis by imposing heavy austerity on the populations of peripheral economies, while forcing their governments to take on massive loans to bail out toxic banks. This response is having devastating social consequences, not only in Ireland but across the European Union. Despite an endless round of crisis summits, a massive transfer of moneys from taxpayers to banks and the austerity treaty, the response to the crisis is not working. Youth unemployment is at crisis level, with nearly one third of young people in Ireland and almost half of Spanish young people out of work. Thousands of young people have to leave the State every week to try to make a living elsewhere. What does the future hold for them? Where is the hope for them? As a man from the west, the Taoiseach is aware of the impact of emigration and the shadow it casts on the small, rural communities dotted across the west. He knows about the empty seats at dinner tables during the Christmas period just passed and the tears shed at airports. We do not want to hear Ministers describe emigration as a lifestyle choice again.

Sinn Féin believes Ireland's place is in Europe. Co-operation with our European partners is essential if we are to meet the challenges facing us in the time ahead. In attempting to portray the choice before Irish people as one of accepting the austerity treaty or leaving the euro the Government is simply scaremongering. The scenario it presents is incorrect because Ireland's position as a member of the eurozone is secure irrespective of what position we take on the treaty. The real question facing the Dáil and citizens is whether this treaty is a good deal for Ireland and Europe. Sinn Féin firmly believes the answer to that question is a negative.

In regard to Article 3.2, as the Taoiseach knows, the language in the first draft was very clear at the insistence of Angela Merkel's Government that we shall transpose these agreements into the constitution or equivalent legislation. The first draft was very clear about what Chancellor Merkel's Government wanted. The Taoiseach's colleague, the Tánaiste, speaking at the Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs, confirmed - the Taoiseach refused to do so today, so I will clarify the matter for him - that our negotiators, clearly at the instruction of either the Taoiseach or the Tánaiste, presumably both, actively sought to weaken that text and to put in the words "preferably constitutional" in order to avoid the requirement to put this proposition before the people. However, the words "binding" and "permanent" are still there. All of the draconian austerity measures, which will go beyond this troika package, are still there, as are all the implications. The only change which the Taoiseach secured was to prevent the people having their say on this issue. That is outrageous and shameful.

Then we had the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Leo Varadkar, tell us that in these debates, people tend to focus on all sorts of things. They might focus on septic tanks, bank bailouts and other such issues. This is an 11 page document. Even if some of his points were accepted, it is not the Lisbon treaty or the Nice treaty. The issues are clear, they can be argued clearly and can be accessible to our people. There is no justification for not putting this before the people because the implications are so profound. That is what the Taoiseach achieved in the negotiations. The only thing he achieved in terms of Chancellor Merkel's crazy austerity-driven approach is to prevent the people having their say.

Austerity has not worked. If the Taoiseach does not want to take Sinn Féin's word for it, I am sure he will take the word of the IMF. The IMF recently published a report which looked at austerity over the past 30 years and 173 different case studies. All that austerity has done, in the absence of some growth strategy, is drive up unemployment and make conditions extremely harsh. This is a mad strategy and I have yet to hear one economist say it can possibly work or, as the Taoiseach said was his objective, get Ireland back to work, or make Ireland the best small country in the world in which to do business. How in the name of God will he achieve that by signing up to this document without any plan for growth, without any sense of investment and without any real economic approach or outline plan?

If the Taoiseach is not happy with the IMF, I will give him some more examples. Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel prize winning economist and the person the Taoiseach called a "commentator" - commentators comment when the Taoiseach is over in Davos where he said the people went mad borrowing - travels the world-----

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