Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)

We have no alternative, as the Deputy well knows, but to work with the programme we have. We will continue to do so and to comply with the sorts of obligations to which we have signed up.

It is true that the treaty is very much anchored in existing EU legislation and treaties. A stated objective in the text of the treaty is to have a review within five years. Another objective is that the treaty will ultimately be subsumed into the body of existing EU law. That is desirable because, at present, two member states are outside the treaty's scope, and 25 member states are likely to sign up. Our objective is to bring it back within the parameters of existing treaties. There is nothing new in that almost all of what is contained in the treaty already exists under our obligations under the Stability and Growth Pact. It is very much in our interest to make the pact function in a way it has not done since the creation of monetary union. The biggest problem the eurozone faces is the reality that member states simply flouted the provisions-----

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