Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)

People talk about conspiracy theories with regard to Goldman Sachs. The technical Prime Ministers of Greece and Italy are of the Goldman Sachs stable. The president of the ECB is from the Goldman Sachs stable. We have senior treasury secretaries and economic advisers in America from that stable. We must ask the question whether if these people and Governments have failed so catastrophically that people are saddled with recapitalising and nationalising banks and with the resulting devastation - one need only look at the situation here - how they can be rewarded and promoted. How can their ideology be put at the forefront and those with a different view be sidelined - the views of those who believe in the principles of Keynes that at a time of recession the cycle must be countered and the economy must be stimulated? Remember how Barack Obama, the US President, explained the role of government to his people in clear, cogent terms. In a time of recession, it is the task of government to intervene and try to restore confidence by investing public funds into the economy to get it moving again.

In Ireland and in Europe we are defying economic logic and the policy is failing catastrophically. We have more of the same in this treaty.

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