Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)

The Government and the EU have proposed a treaty which deals with none of the problems facing Europe. It does not deal with the debt crisis, the banking crisis or the unemployment crisis. There are solutions, however.

As I said, we need investment in jobs and growth. I know the Government has pilfered most of it but we still have a National Pensions Reserve Fund of €5.3 billion. This should be combined with the resources of the European Investment Bank to invest in various projects to get our people back to work. The European banking system must be cleansed of toxic debts through a new round of rigorous stress tests and deleveraging followed by recapitalisation where necessary funded by the European Central Bank. Debt-restructuring agreements must be introduced for over indebted economies involving debt write-downs to assist them return to debt sustainability. This would also allow the State to end the €3.1 billion annual payment to Anglo Irish Bank which will cost the Irish taxpayers up to €65 billion before it concludes in 20 years.

Has the Government not considered any of these suggestions? The Taoiseach is not a stupid man. Has anyone at Cabinet considered that we cannot afford this treaty?

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