John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)

Certain Deputies should be careful about using terms such as "extreme right" or "extreme left" to label other Deputies. I happen to be a socialist and I was candid about my policies during the general election campaign. I engaged openly with people in Waterford about who I am and what I stand for, as the Minister has done on many occasions. People were comfortable with that and I was elected to the House. Branding me as "extreme left" is out of order. I am what I am, unlike other Deputies who made all sorts of promises and got themselves elected to the House on the basis of lies. I wanted to clarify that matter for a former Deputy.

My difficulty with the treaty is that by voting "Yes", I would be gambling with the future of the coming generations because I would be supporting a decision to cede an extraordinary degree of control over economic and fiscal policies from elected governments to unelected bureaucrats and judges in the European Commission in Brussels and European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.

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