Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)

The Tánaiste knows I am right about this treaty. This treaty is about Angela Merkel's insistence on austerity. She has given the impression to her own people that this was about irresponsible, reckless feckless people in the periphery - the banks and so on, but mostly ordinary people - who now need to be cleansed for their recklessness through austerity and that when the people can prove they are responsible citizens, they can avail of the supports. This is a lie. The core responsibility, particularly of German banks, is evident. I could quote George Soros, the former German Minister for Foreign Affairs, Joschka Fischer, and former British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, on this. This is the reality, yet Germany has not shouldered its responsibility when communicating to its people. However, we buy into this narrative. This is from where this treaty came and this is what it is about.

The Government talks about solutions. There are four key elements to the crisis. There is the investment crisis, the unemployment crisis, the sovereign debt crisis and a banking crisis. On the issue of investment and unemployment, we have a huge resource in Europe, the European Investment Bank, which could be deployed in a strategic fashion to get the stimulus started across Europe. It has a track record of prudent investment and return and provides an intelligent way of redistributing wealth throughout the European area, but in a way that provides a return on the investment.

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