Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)

There was no automatic sanctioning if member states did not comply. The biggest offenders were the larger member states. I do not need to repeat that in this Chamber. The very significant change in the text of this treaty is that those sanctions will now be automatic. It will not be necessary to achieve a majority of member states to vote in favour of imposing sanctions because it will happen automatically. As a member of the euro currency - the monetary union - that is absolutely in our interest.

If I can project where we will be in ten years time, it is of course our objective to have a stabilised currency which has clear rules and regulations, some of which are contained in this fiscal treaty, with which member states will be obliged to comply. If we can achieve that sort of stability in the short term, the long-term prospects for the euro zone and for all of the things we have talked about in terms of future prosperity for the people of Europe, job creation and so on, the key to this is investment. Europe is a deeply unattractive place for investment at the present; indeed, Ireland is one of the few exceptions to that. Our objective is to put in place a framework, of which this is one element, to stabilise our currency in order to ensure we can set about the very important task of trying to grow.

The Government is not, as Deputy Martin tried to suggest earlier, under any illusion that this is the ultimate solution or a solution in its own right. It is simply an element of a solution. That is why it is read and perceived in the context of the broader European treaty body of legislation and the European founding treaties, all of which aspire to defending and strengthening the European social model, to which Deputy Mac Lochlainn referred. While it is extremely important we maintain that objective at the very core of what we are doing at European level, we cannot just pretend this fiscal crisis does not exist, that we do not need to balance our books and that we can continue spending money we simply do not have. There has to be an element of realism in all of this. By instilling and enshrining these rules and their enforceability in the broader European legal framework, we will go a long way to doing that.

It is not a question of choosing one model or the other. It is simply a question of binding our ambition to impose rules and regulations, which have been ignored in the past, and to couple them with the social model, the social Europe agenda and, obviously, with the biggest priority of all, which is to get back to a position of growth and job creation.

Finally, there was a question in regard to the whole area of SMEs. There is no question, and I do not believe anybody in Government has ever suggested, that we can solve the major challenge in our domestic economy overnight. However, we have begun to put in place policies-----

See this speech in context