Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)

In every political debate there is a temptation to muddy the waters. There will be a danger with regard to the stability treaty to make it into something it is not. While we have conversations about austerity and linking the treaty to household charges, property taxes and water rates we must be genuine and sincere in our approach and inform people of what the treaty is about and not what it is not about.

This is a difficult time for many people and they are having to make stark choices. I know a family who have two children in college and must make the stark choice not to facilitate their third child going to college. These are the very real choices faced by people. They are having to decide whether to tax the car or replace the tyres. That is the grim reality in our economy at present. There is a temptation to muddy the waters by raising issues unconnected with the stability treaty. Similarly, I know a tour operator in Donegal who will bring 10,000 German tourists into County Donegal between now and October of this year. I could argue that the treaty is about encouraging more Germans to come into County Donegal, but it would be disingenuous of me to make that argument. The treaty is not about encouraging tourism. Likewise, it is not about austerity.

The treaty is about balancing budgets and having a safety checking mechanism among the group of 25 out of 27 countries that have signed an intergovernmental agreement . It is about putting in checks and balances to ensure solidarity. It is not just about oversight for our country, which is the argument being made at present. The treaty is about more than oversight for Ireland. It will mean collective oversight to ensure that one country does not drag down the others. That is the first objective of the treaty.

The second objective relates to having access to emergency funding. Like yourself, a Cheann Chomhairle, I am not great at predicting the future. We do not know what is going to happen in two, three, four or five years time. We can only put in checks and balances to prevent certain things happening and to ensure that we have access to a firewall of over €800 billion in the European Stability Mechanism.

There is an important role for civic society. I call on people who are leaders in their own communities at community, business or commercial levels to get involved in this debate. The treaty is a document of only 11 pages. People can inform themselves and will be informed through the Referendum Commission. We need collective leadership from civic society. There is a role for them to play.

As a Donegal man coming from a county that voted "No" to Lisbon twice, I will say Donegal people, like many people who voted "No" in the first Lisbon referendum, felt Europe was getting out of hand and out of control and that there was a vacuum with regard to the democratic deficit. That was the language being used on the doorsteps when I canvassed in both Lisbon treaty campaigns. This treaty will put control mechanisms in place to ensure the EU does not get out of control and that we do not have two leaders, such as Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy, as the optics of the European project. The European Union is more than that. It is about collective ownership and leadership and encouraging and empowering countries such as Ireland to be part of it through our European elected members and through having a more accountable Commission.

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