Dominic Hannigan (Meath East, Labour)

I welcome the opportunity to speak about the decision to put the fiscal compact to the people. When I was elected Chairman of the Joint Committee on European Affairs, I knew that a great deal of work would have to be done. The joint committee meets each week to debate how European decisions will affect Ireland. The committee has led the debate on many European issues. It has been debating the fiscal compact since it was agreed in January. We have had a number of meetings with various economists, including Dr. Alan Ahearne of NUIG, Professor Karl Whelan of UCD and Mr. Paul Sweeney of ICTU, at which we have discussed the impact of the fiscal compact treaty on our economy. We have also met the Minister of State at the German Federal Foreign Office, who spoke with the committee about Ireland's recovery and the impact the fiscal compact will have on the eurozone. Ambassadors from Spain, Germany and France will attend tomorrow's meeting of the joint committee to talk about the fiscal compact and the European economic situation. I do not doubt that it will be a frank and robust debate.

As we want the debate on the compact to be inclusive, we have invited members of the public to make submissions on it to the committee. The more engagement we have with the public on this issue, the better. A national debate is welcome and will help the eventual outcome of the vote. In my view, the Irish people have nothing to fear from this treaty. The fiscal compact is largely a restatement of current agreements - there is little new in it. If we reject this treaty, it will not mean that we reject any of the measures in the six pack. They would still remain. The treaty restates our commitment to ensuring the euro is underpinned with a stable and secure governance mechanism. This stability will lead to greater investment, more consumer confidence, higher levels of funding for our businesses, increased growth and more jobs for our people.

I listened to other Deputies talking about how small countries like Ireland will suffer if we break the rules. They suggested that under reverse qualified majority voting, we will have to pay fines whereas larger countries like France and Germany will not have to do so. That is not true. I encourage all Deputies to examine reverse qualified majority voting. It will be very difficult for France, Germany or any other country, regardless of its size, to overturn a decision. The purpose of this treaty is to ensure we all play by the rules and, in the process, maintain a stable and secure currency. Opponents of the fiscal compact have argued that if it is introduced, Europe will face constant austerity. This is not the case. Under the six pack agreement, we will need to reduce the debt to GDP ratio to 60%. We will have to do this regardless of whether the treaty is voted through. The ratio can be reduced in many ways. Austerity is not a foregone conclusion. The debt to GDP ratio can be reduced by means of growth - by making the pie larger. In 1991, our debt to GDP ratio was 95% but by 1999, it had reduced to 35%. That was not achieved by cutting, but by making sure the Irish economy grew. That is what we need to do again.

We need to see growth in the Irish economy. We saw growth of almost 1% last year. That needs to continue. We launched the action plan for jobs last week. We hope this will lead to a structural change in how we do business. We hope it will make it easier to start new businesses, to build businesses and to run businesses. Our economy should grow further as a result of that. I spent the last two days in Brussels at a meeting with other parliamentarians and with various EU Commissioners. The mood across Europe is for greater efforts to be made to generate growth, more work to be done on economic drivers, more focus to be given to youth unemployment and more support to be given to new businesses. We need to push this agenda. We need fiscal responsibility. We need to take actions to stabilise our currency. Measures such as the fiscal compact will make it easier to ensure economic growth takes place. I look forward to the debate in Ireland over the coming months. I look forward to engaging with the public on this crucial issue.

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