Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

I believe this treaty will undemocratically bind future Governments to austerity, even though they may have campaigned and been elected on the basis of their opposition to it. In the course of the debate on the treaty, the Government must explain clearly why it agreed to insert in the European stability fund treaty a clause that would deny any state not ratifying the fiscal compact access to funding from the European stability fund. That was quietly and secretly done in February, in a change from what was agreed last July.

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