Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)

The title of the Bill indicates that its purpose is to facilitate, in the public interest, the financial stability of the EU and the safeguarding of financial stability in the euro area as a whole. I note the insertion of the term "public interest" but would it not be more honest to insert the term "in the interests of the European banking system"? What has happened in Greece cannot be described even remotely as being in the public interest. Greece is now in its fifth year of recession and it is estimated that 75% of its decline over the past two years was due to austerity measures. The country has a 25% unemployment rate, with 40% of that made up of young people. There has been a cut in education funding of 25% from a very low spending base of 4% of GDP. Greek society is being forced to jettison the young people who are its future. The NGOs and street clinics for immigrants now service 30% of Greek citizens with food and clothes. These cold statistics cannot give a real picture of what ordinary Greeks suffer. The suicide rates are frightening, with an increase of 40% in the first six months of 2011 following an increase of 25% in 2010. The human cost to the Greek people is staggering and must be taken on board.

The recipe of austerity imposed, including the unprecedented demand for regime change by the troika and Merkozy, has been a disaster for the Greek people and the Greek economy. The people bearing this enormous burden are not responsible for the crisis. Those responsible - the bankers, speculators and market players - have been handed €1 trillion at a 1% interest rate by the ECB under the long-term refinancing operation. This has prompted a market rally and brought down sovereign borrowing rates for Italy and Spain as banks borrow at 1% and lend to these states at 6%, pocketing a 5% profit . The question is how much of this €1 trillion, if any, has filtered down to the real economy. Has a single job been created? How is the €1 trillion to be repaid and by whom? This money is not going into productive investment which would generate economic growth and provide the wherewithal to repay it. It is adding to the debt burden of states which already have unsustainable debt levels with contracting economies in the death grip of austerity.

The only benefit - if it can be called a benefit -is to gloss over the scale of the EU banking crisis. We will now be asked in the upcoming referendum on the fiscal compact to endorse this madness. Irish people must give these issues extremely careful consideration. If the ECB can magic up - that is print - €1 trillion for the banks, why could it not have bailed out Ireland, Portugal and Greece with a 1% interest rate on less than 50% of what was given to the banks and allow them to manage their deficits without the crippling level of austerity demanded by the troika and at the same time have a minimum €500 billion for a programme to create jobs, develop infrastructure and promote growth in the periphery? This would create the possibility of growing out of the crisis.

Deputy Michael McGrath stated Fianna Fáil would support the Bill on the basis that the Greek government and the powers that be have indicated it must be the case. I reject this entirely. A puppet prime minister was put in place by Merkel and Sarkozy. He was parachuted into the Greek government. Strings are being pulled by international bankers who want their money back. The cost of this is that Greek people must pay enormously, far beyond what they should be paying. The suicide rates indicate the real suffering faced by the Greek people. I cannot support this and I reject the payment of the bailout. Ireland should consider what will happen in the coming months with regard to the fiscal compact treaty because it will batten down austerity in this country and in Europe. The points made by Deputy Clare Daly on European people having more in common with regard to dealing with the needs, economies, lives and jobs of people is key and there should be a Europe-wide campaign.

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