Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I express my thanks and appreciation to the Members who have contributed to this important debate. This is extremely important legislation which will facilitate the holding of a referendum on the stability treaty on Thursday, 31 May. I have already said to the House that the treaty is critical to the future of the country. If it is about anything, it is about making sure the costly mistakes of the past are not repeated. It is about having a sustainable, fair and people-focused economy in this country and across Europe. We want to have public money, the euro, available for public services and job incentives, not for paying down debt. As I have said on many occasions, this is about the euro in our pocket. This is a matter of vital interest for every man, woman and child in the country.

I heard Deputy Sandra McLellan and other speakers take issue with this position in the course of the debate. They also took issue with the assertion I made that a "Yes" vote in ratification of the treaty was important for the country, would be good for its people and that a "No" vote would be damaging. Let me be clear: if we reject the treaty, there will be consequences. At a minimum, we would contribute to continuing uncertainty and instability about the euro. I would like to hear someone explain to me how it is in the interests of any worker in this country that there be doubt about the value of the euro, the currency in which they are paid. I would also like an explanation of how it is in the interests of those on pensions or coming close to pension age that there be doubt about the value of the currency in which their pensions are paid. I would like to hear how it is in the interests of anyone with small savings that the value of these savings be in doubt. At a minimum, it would send a message about our relationship with the euro to the very people we want to invest in this country to create jobs. One of the things I know from the work I do as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade is that one of the first questions asked by investors, including potential investors, these days is not about the state of the economy but about the state of the European economy and the stability of the euro.

We have been doing very well. Happily, today we hear another major announcement of a significant number of jobs being created in Cork. It comes on the back of several other announcements in recent weeks, all of which are the result of the work we have been doing in building and rebuilding this country's reputation and assuring investors that this is a good place in which to invest. We do not want to put this at risk by sending a message that the country is somehow ambiguous about the euro and its future. In addition, a "No" vote would pull away the safety net of the European Stability Mechanism, to which I hope as a country we will never need to have recourse, but if we did need, it is highly unwise of anyone to argue that it should be pulled away.

The argument seems to be made from the benches opposite by those who are arguing against the treaty that somehow if it is rejected, phoenix-like, a new European economy will emerge and all of ur financial difficulties will simply be wiped away. That is not the case. If the treaty is rejected, on the following day we will still have a deficit that must be dealt with. As I said at the Oireachtas committee, there is a deficit of €13.7 billion to bridge.

It is interesting that the very people who are arguing against this treaty are also those who are saying we should default, in which case we would not have access to private funding. They are the people who have been saying that the troika and its money should be sent away from the country so that we do not have access to the emergency funding that we now have under the programme. Thirdly, they are saying that we should not have the European Stability Mechanism either, and some have gone so far, I understand, as to suggest that the establishment of the European Stability Mechanism should be vetoed or blocked. How on earth would we bridge the €13.7 billion? The Government has a plan for the bridging of that deficit. It is a plan which involves a graduated reduction of our deficit over a number of years coupled with a strategy which we have set out, both for this country and for Europe, for the creation of jobs and economic growth that will bring about the lift that we need to get out of our economic difficulties.

The opponents of this treaty are going around arguing that the passing of this treaty will result in prolonged austerity in this country. The reverse is the case. The rejection of this treaty is what will result in prolonged austerity for this country. The opponents of this treaty have to date not put forward a single credible idea as to how the deficit for this country can be reduced. Where will Deputy Ó Caoláin get the €13.7 billion to bridge the gap? If one pulls away the emergency funding, if one pulls away the programme we already have, if one rejects the idea of borrowing money on the private markets or having access to it, how will one bridge the funding? Where will one have the money to pay nurses, teachers and gardaí, to pay social welfare payments, to keep schools and hospitals running? It is time to lift the head out of the abracadabra type of economics that has been promoted by some of those arguing against this treaty.

The decision that we collectively, as the Irish people, will take at the end of May will have real consequences for the future of this country. The Government believes it will say a great deal about where we stand, about our aspirations for the future, about who we are and where we are going.

We have a burden of responsibility to ensure we fully equip the Irish people with all the information and understanding they need to make an informed choice on 31 May. That is why we have launched the most comprehensive Government information campaign ever held for a European referendum. Yesterday, we launched a dedicated website - stabilitytreaty.ie - so everyone can read the treaty and have it explained to them, article by article. The website is available also in mobile format and has links to both Facebook and Twitter.

In early May, every home in the land will receive a copy of the treaty, with explanatory material printed in both Irish and English. Closer to polling day, every home will get another information note to help voters make their final decision as well-informed as possible. We will spare no effort to inform the Irish people. The debate underway in this House is a vital part of these efforts. I again compliment the sub-committee of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on European Union Affairs, and its Chairman, Deputy Hannigan, for the work it has been doing.

I have carefully followed the debate here and am struck by the need to address a few key issues which I believe have not yet been genuinely and honestly treated by all participating in this debate.

My firm view, as I stated, is that voting "No" will not help Ireland's recovery; it will hinder it. Those who claim that this treaty is about austerity are plain wrong. Let us be clear about one matter. The treaty is about managing our debt in such a way that, over time, taxpayers' money goes, not into servicing debts but increasingly into public services and targeted growth initiatives to create jobs.

As a small open economy, we have seen in dramatic fashion how quickly our public finances can become unstable in the face of global economic turbulence. We cannot allow that to happen again. Even if we were not party to the treaty, as a matter of proper economic management, we would have to reduce our indebtedness over time. Those who make claims about the treaty imposing austerity seem to believe that one can run a deficit forever, or accumulate debt without limit; one cannot. As I said earlier this week, that is not a matter of ideology; it is a matter of mathematics.

We also have heard much in this debate about the value of access to the European Stability Mechanism, the ESM. Some opponents of this treaty try to argue that linking the ESM to this treaty is some form of blackmail. This is fundamentally disingenuous.

There also has been the argument that we can veto the ESM, and I want to clear that up as well. First, as I emphasised already, the suggestions that we should seek to veto our insurance policy does not make practical sense. From the strictly legal perspective, we do not have a veto. The ESM treaty does not require unanimity to enter into force. It simply requires ratification by the states whose collective contribution to the funds in the ESM amounts to 90%. It is true that the amendment to Article 136 of the treaty on the functioning of the EU requires unanimity but as this amendment is purely for the purpose of clarifying that the member states may establish the ESM, it is not necessary for it to enter into force before the ESM is established.

As I see it, the link in this treaty to the ESM is essentially about having an insurance policy, ensure we have access, if needed, to the funding that allows us to fund public services and all Government spending. We are determined to return to the financial markets next year, to stand on our own two feet again. We are on target with our programme, and sentiment towards Ireland is positive, and yet we cannot control world events and the world economy. Markets need to know there is a backup in the form of the European Stability Mechanism and we can only access that if we ratify this treaty on 31 May. Who would argue that it is in Ireland's interests that we be excluded from the ESM? Who could advocate that we invite all the uncertainty that would bring and most of all, where are the other sources of funding that opponents claim to be an alternative?

Finally, this treaty is fundamentally about efforts that we are making to restore confidence in us as a country in which to invest and to do business. Personally, I have been impressed in my contacts with investors and employers about the high premium they put on Ireland being part of a stable eurozone. These are the people who are creating jobs in this country and their confidence in us matters. They want to do business in Europe and they are convinced by what Ireland has to offer as a European base, but they need reassurance that the euro currency is stable and that Ireland's is a stable and well managed economy at the heart of the eurozone. A vote in favour of this treaty will bolster this confidence as a place in which to invest and create jobs.

The Government will not shy away from playing its full part in informing the Irish people in honest terms about what is at stake in this important vote. This is not a time for the registering of protests or to use the vote on this treaty for unassociated issues. Many of the difficult decisions the Government must make on a daily basis to help get this economy back on a stable footing require hardship and sacrifice and I very much regret that we find ourselves in that position as a country, but we will continue to work, night and day, to fix this. I am convinced that a "Yes" vote in this referendum is an essential contribution to that effort.

I have never claimed that the stability treaty, on its own, is the solution to all of our problems, but it is an important part of the solution to them. In addition to this stability treaty, as the Taoiseach stated at the European Council meeting in January, we also need a jobs and growth strategy in Europe in order for Europe to get out of its economic difficulties, but it is manifestly clear that we also must ensure that the euro - the currency in which we are paid, which we spend when we have it and which we save whenever we can - is secure and that the insecurity around it that we saw last year, which had such a potentially damaging effect on investment in Europe, and particularly here in Ireland, is settled. That is, essentially, what this treaty is about - putting into treaty form the rules governing the shared and common currency. It is in all our interests that there is stability in the eurozone. It is in our interests because that stability will inspire confidence in those who invest in this country, and also encourage domestic confidence which, of course, we need to see increase in order for economic recovery to come about.

The "Yes" vote in this referendum is an important decision that every individual must make in the privacy of the ballot booth reflecting on the implications of that decisions for the euro in his or her pocket, for his or her own future in terms of job opportunities and, in particular, for the future of his or her children. It is not a panacea, but it is an important part of the recovery package that the country needs and we should not put it at risk. Cuireadh an cheist.

See this speech in context