Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)

The Taoiseach earlier refused to answer any of my questions around the bank formerly known as Anglo Irish Bank and yesterday refused to answer my questions on a conflict of interest with those in NAMA. I have to make my mind up on why he does this. It is unjustifiable the people should have to pick up the bill for all of this and at such a cost.

I call on the Taoiseach again not to pay the €3.1 billion to a zombie bank at the end of March. He should simply refuse to pay it. It is not contained in the memorandum of understanding with the troika or any of the other measures in which the Government has been involved. We simply cannot afford it.

Within existing EU treaty provisions, the European Council must ensure the ECB - which has a responsibility in this - takes all necessary action to stabilise sovereign bond interest rates and ensure market access for all member states. On the day after the treaty was agreed, the EU released its youth unemployment statistics but it did not release any strategy for dealing with this unemployment reality for our young people. Almost one third of young people in this country and almost half of young Spanish people are out of work. Thousands of young people, not least from the Taoiseach's own constituency and not least from the west, have to leave the State every week to try to make a living elsewhere. The austerity treaty will only make this dire situation worse. It is not right, just nor fair that working people have to pay for the greed, corruption and bad government that led to the economic crisis or the debts created by the golden circle - the big bankers, bondholders and developers.

We will fight the campaign against the treaty within Sinn Féin and across the electorate, who are very sophisticated. The people understand these matters a lot more than the conservative parties give them credit for. I have every faith in the wisdom of the people, their sophistication and ability to come up with the right decision on the future, whether it will be a future of austerity in perpetuity or a new Ireland, a new republic, a just Ireland, one in which equality is valued and the people are valued.

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