Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on such an important issue. Today is an extremely poignant day for this country, with the Mahon tribunal publishing its final report on corruption after 15 years' of inquiries.

If accepted by the Irish people, this austerity treaty will have a dramatic effect on the future growth and stability of our economy. This treaty will not solve the eurozone crisis and, like my colleagues in Sinn Féin, I am certain it will not fix our economy either. If anything, this austerity treaty will deepen the recession for thousands of Irish citizens across the country.

The treaty will lead to even greater levels of austerity being imposed on families that are already over-burdened. It will mean more taxes on lower and middle-income earners. This comes at a time when the Government has awarded a payment of €623,000 to Bank of Ireland chief executive, Richie Boucher. I remind the Minister that this payment breaches the Government's own pay cap by €123,000. It is absolutely scandalous that the head of a bank that has received such a huge injection of taxpayers' money should be rewarded, while under this treaty ordinary people will yet again be attacked by the Government.

The stark reality and brutal impact of the Government's austerity policies are being felt by every sector of society, but more so by low and middle-income earners. Every day in my constituency I see droves of young people leaving our shores. They are doing so not, as has been claimed, by choice but in search of a better life, which they feel they cannot achieve here.

The most powerful tool for progress as a nation is education. Education is central to the development of a prosperous and vibrant country. Yet this treaty, if accepted by the Irish people, will ensure that there will be more public spending cuts. Where will these cuts come from?

Within our education system, we have seen the removal of Traveller support teachers, teachers of English as an acquired language, special needs assistants, and home-school liaison. We have seen an attack on DEIS schools, while small schools are under pressure which is causing major problems in rural areas, especially in the Gaeltacht. How much more can the Minister for Education and Skills cut?

This treaty significantly strengthens the capacity of the European Commission to enforce member state compliance with existing rules and new ones. Member states will have signed up to a legally binding obligation to enter automatically an economic partnership programme when they are in breach of the rules. The content of this programme will be determined by the European Commission and will be extremely similar to the current EU-IMF austerity programme.

Arguments have been made that these rules in the treaty are sensible, and are there to promote growth and stability in the economy. The rules are far from that, however - they are anti-job and anti-growth. Many economists, both Irish and international from both left and right, have all challenged the credibility of this treaty and its rules.

Sinn Féin believes this treaty will most definitely not resolve the underlying crisis with the euro. We feel strongly that, if implemented, the treaty will make matters much worse and will in fact further deepen the recession in Ireland.

I have heard many Government Deputies argue that this treaty and its rules are aimed at ensuring the books are being balanced, as well as preventing governments from spending more than they earn. This is a ridiculous argument. Economies are not the same as households. A requirement to balance the books at year-end does not apply in the same way to an economy as it does to a family.

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