Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

Deputy Mac Lochlainn asked what is plan B if the treaty is rejected. Frankly, the onus is on the Deputy's party to tell us the answer if the treaty is rejected because he and his colleagues are advocating its rejection. The Government is putting forward the treaty on a positive basis and we believe the treaty will contribute to stabilising the euro, which is in everybody's interest. People understand why this is necessary with regard to the value of the euro in their pocket and stabilising the eurozone so we can get investment in jobs in Europe. As soon as we move past ratification of the treaty we can consider how to grow the European economy, which consists of 500 million people. There are significant positives and we must focus a bit more on them. There are many apocalyptic stories being told but Europe has a very significant future. There is potential for the European economy to grow with a market of 500 million people and all that is around it. That is where we should put our focus.

Access to the European Stability Mechanism, ESM, will be for those states that ratify the treaty. As I noted before, the Government's intention is to exit the programme we are in so that we can get back to the financial markets. The difficulty that an inability to access the ESM would have is in the entry back to the market. If there is a perception that we do not have access to the safety net of the ESM, there may be consequences.

On the issue of Finland and the non-proliferation treaty, I have worked closely with my Finnish colleague and will continue to do so on the matter.

With regard to Deputy Boyd Barrett's contribution, we are at the beginning of a referendum campaign and we should not start by making comments that are not true. This treaty does not ban borrowing any more than the last treaty banned the holding of future referenda, which was one of the daft claims made at the time. The treaty before us does not ban borrowing but provides for the implementation of the rules around the euro, which have been agreed already. We must realise that treaty or no treaty, we should address the level of borrowing that this country has. We cannot go on borrowing an additional €50 million every day to pay our way and we must tackle the issue.

Somebody told me there was a right-wing Danish MEP at a meeting with Deputy Boyd Barrett recently.

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