Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

-----to go first. Why will the Taoiseach not have the political courage to do what is fairer and rational, that is, impose a little extra tax on the bankers and speculators, which could generate hundreds of millions of euro for the State, and show leadership in Europe on this issue by joining with the progressive forces in Europe on a fair way to deal with the crisis, instead of constantly attacking low and middle income earners in a way that is unfair and disastrous?

On this fiscal treaty, the Taoiseach did not tell us what reasons Prime Minister David Cameron gave for not supporting the treaty. Is the Taoiseach not even remotely interested in the fact that there is a huge political tidal wave sweeping across Europe that says "No" to the logic of the fiscal treaty and the austerity contained within it? Is he not even remotely inquisitive about the thinking behind that huge sea change in viewpoint on austerity across Europe whereby people are rejecting it? Should that not give him pause to reconsider this austerity treaty?

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