Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)

I wish to deal first with the comments of Deputy Micheál Martin, who referred to Sinn Féin's position on the treaty campaign as cynical. To be honest I find it amusing because I remember the then Minister of State with responsibility for European affairs, Mr. Dick Roche, Deputy Martin's Cabinet colleague, say there would not be a second vote on the Lisbon treaty. He assured people they would have only one bite of the cherry and that there would not be a second vote. He then went on to lead us into a second campaign when the Government did not get the answer it wanted the first time. That is very cynical. In the second campaign the economic crisis had just begun to emerge and people were deeply alarmed and fearful for their future. The campaign slogan was "Yes for jobs, yes for growth, yes for prosperity". We now know what all of those assurances got us. I call that deeply cynical. We in Sinn Féin are not going to take lectures from Deputy Micheál Martin about cynicism because the evidence is that as the then Minister for Foreign Affairs and a senior member of Fianna Fáil he played a significant role in those two campaigns. He should not use such words as "cynical" because we can get copies of his quotes and statements if he wants. It would be advisable for Deputy Martin to move away from name-calling.

The Government never dreamt it would be in this position. It sought to avoid a referendum by all means. In the negotiations the two things that were achieved - or conceded - by our negotiators were, first, the insertion of the words "preferably constitutional", which was obviously aimed at avoiding a referendum, and acknowledged as such by the Tánaiste. Second, we had the insistence of Mrs. Angela Merkel's government that a stick would be introduced to beat our people with on conditionality such that we could not access the European stability mechanism funding unless we agreed to the treaty. That is what the Government achieved in order to try to avoid putting the proposition to the people and to give Mrs. Angela Merkel's government a stick to beat us with if we did find ourselves in that position. That is some achievement. It is a remarkable betrayal of the people by the Government in those negotiations.

Unfortunately for the Government the first part has not worked, as after much deliberation the Attorney General has reported back that the Government has no choice but to put the treaty before the people. Sinn Féin received considerable legal advice and we would have taken the Government to court if necessary. We believe we would have achieved the same outcome. The Government has done what it did not want to do and now we are in the middle of a campaign.

In considering the conclusions of the European Council I am conscious that I am speaking as the Tánaiste and leader of the Labour Party is present in the Chamber. The conclusions are all about right wing politics. Mr. Fintan O'Toole is considered to be a left wing commentator, someone the Labour grassroots would read assiduously every week to get their direction on the way the country is going. He reported that the treaty outlaws Keynesianism. It enshrines right wing ideology and a right wing view of how we should run our affairs across Europe. The more one looks at it the more shocking it is that any member of the Labour Party in this country, or anyone who is part of the left historically in Europe, could agree to it.

Point No. 9 of the conclusions refers to shifting taxes away from labour. That sounds good; that it will take the weight off working people but one must ask whether we are going to have wealth taxes. Are we going to ask those at the higher level to pay their fair share? It does not; what it means is that we are going to cut public services and the welfare state across Europe. Why does it not say that when that is what it means? There is a right wing intent. The conclusions also refer to increased efforts to make it easier and more attractive for employers to hire people where necessary by improving wage-setting mechanisms. That reads well but one can translate it to mean reduced wages and making it easier to sack people. An unravelling of the social Europe is taking place as we speak by the very people who caused the crisis - the right wing ideologues. Point No. 15 refers to a reduction in the administration and regulatory burdens at EU and national level and the removal of barriers to the creation of new jobs. That translates to a recipe for light-touch regulation, which is more right wing ideology.

I can understand Fine Gael, whose history is as an avowedly right wing party, supporting the conclusions but for the life of me I cannot understand how the Labour Party could sign up to this power grab by the right in Europe. If the Tánaiste is not happy with my assessment of matters he should look at the comments of his MEPs. We are being told the treaty will formalise the six pack and various other measures to which we have agreed and that this is a good way to run our affairs. However, this is not what Labour Party MEPs are saying and we will be quoting their comments to the public during the course of the referendum campaign. We will also be quoting them and the damning analysis of the treaty by Mr. Jack O'Connor, a Labour Party member and senior trade unionist, to the Labour Party grassroots. At some point the Labour Party will have to question its reason for supporting the approach being taken to tackling the crisis. I do not think it believes in that approach; I hope it does not. What we are witnessing is a right-wing revolution which outlaws Keynesian economics, the potential of a government to stimulate an economy, to intervene in a recession or counter the cycle, which has always been the position of the left. This has been our approach to addressing crises since the Second World War. Mr. Fintan O'Toole summarised this best yesterday and it must have been painful for Labour Party members to read his analysis. The Labour Party will have to endure a lot more pain during this campaign because we will be reminding the grassroots, its members and the people what it stated previously in comparison with its enthusiastic support for the treaty.

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