Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

Before the last election Fine Gael and the Labour Party railed against the arrogance of the Fianna Fáil Government and promised more democracy and accountability, open government and to get Ireland working. Yet, one year on the Government is conspiring with EU leaders to deny people a vote on the treaty which will further and substantially dismantle democracy across Europe and lock the citizens of this country and the rest of Europe into a straitjacket of austerity and cutbacks, which would guarantee mass unemployment and emigration for at least a decade if not longer and from which we may never recover.

It is extraordinary to hear the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, talk about how the Irish public would not understand the provisions of the treaty and get caught up in extraneous issues. It is unbelievably insulting-----

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