Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

The meeting which starts tonight is the direct result of the consistent failure of Europe's leaders to address this crisis with the urgency it requires. In summit after summit, the action taken has always been the minimum required to get through the next few weeks or months. The dominant theme has been an effort to make pre-crisis policies work rather than to adopt the radical departures that are clearly needed. Each significant move has been as the result of an emergency and so the Union has consistently failed to keep pace with the crisis.

If many of the policies in place today had been agreed two years ago, it is likely the Irish and Portuguese bailouts could have been avoided. The eurozone would not be facing a threat to its very existence. However, they were resisted and the crisis was allowed to spiral. The December set of agreements have, as predicted, proven to be inadequate. They have failed and we are now in a situation where more radical action is required. The situation is much graver than it has been at any time in the past three years because the room for manoeuvre and delay is over. The crisis is reaching its final stage, which will see either dramatic action to save the euro and restore growth or the setting off of a chain of events which may be impossible to contain. The situation today is that preparations are already under way to manage the possible departure of a state from the euro. There is a steady run on eurozone banks, with vulture funds lining up to try to exploit the situation. Sovereign borrowing is reaching possibly unsustainable levels for many countries. Most important, and unfortunately, there is no faith whatsoever that Europe's leaders understand what must be done.

Although others in this House have either ignored the crisis or focused on getting short-term political benefit from it, I and my party have been consistent in calling for and proposing a set of actions to contain the sovereign debt crisis, reform the eurozone and restore growth.

The design of the euro is deeply flawed and lies at the heart of everything which has happened during the past three years. This is recognised by the architect of the euro, Jacques Delors, and by nearly every independent expert. The OECD's commentary of today is the latest to set out the simple truth: change core policies of the eurozone or allow a much deeper and destructive crisis to develop.

The eurozone has the resources within its borders to get through this crisis. It is one of the world's wealthiest regions. Its aggregate fiscal, trade and financial situation is very strong. It can overcome any of the challenges which face it today. The only issue is whether it is willing to adopt the policies required. It is also important to reiterate that the euro is worth saving. It has enabled growth and rising standards of living which, in most places, have not been completely undone by the crisis. In Ireland, it still supports hundreds of thousands of jobs. At this meeting, and over the coming weeks, what Europe needs is for its leaders to agree more radical action to restore confidence and growth to Europe. Only when they show they understand the scale of what is required will progress be possible.

The deal that is desperately needed is one which achieves three basic outcomes. First, it must tackle the sovereign debt crisis by establishing a more secure and bigger facility for buying government bonds. Second, it must tackle the financial crisis by ensuring that banks are capitalised to a level where their long-term survival is unquestioned, including dealing with Irish bank and mortgage debts. Third, it must tackle the jobs crisis by using the eurozone's enormous resources to deliver immediate job-creating investment. What will not do is the minimalist collection of half-measures and over-hyped statements of intent which have followed most summits for the past year. Unfortunately, the early indications about the agenda are not encouraging.

Before I speak about the action that is needed to save the eurozone, it is important for me to put next week's referendum in context. Every day, it is becoming clearer that an Irish "Yes" vote is essential if Europe is to return to stability and growth. The stability treaty is not the only solution to the crisis. Fiscal policies did not cause the crisis. Those like the Taoiseach and his Government colleagues who pretended they did wasted a great deal of critical time. However, a determination to run sustainable fiscal policies is a vital part of the solution to the crisis. If states are to be able to borrow to fund their public services, we must restore confidence in budget policies. The consequence of any failure in this challenge would be austerity on a scale far beyond anything we have experienced to date. Europe is on a precipice. We must do nothing to push it over the edge.

The controls in this treaty are already in European law. We are accepting no new budget targets and no new austerity. We are giving the existing targets more credibility. We are saying we accept that states cannot spend and borrow without limit. Under every conceivable scenario, a "Yes" vote will give us the most secure and cheapest access to the funding we need to keep paying public services and pensions. By contrast, the "No" side is offering nothing but cynical arguments that are designed to exploit problems rather than solve them. When they are asked how Ireland will find the €18 billion it will need in two years' time to fund services and refinance debt, all they can come up with is "sure someone will have to lend to us and we hope they will give us a good rate". The "No" alliance, which extends from the extreme left to British and English nationalists, has nothing to offer other than empty slogans. A win for the "No" side would represent an immediate worsening of the crisis and much deeper austerity than anything which is planned or likely. People are seeing through the claim that they are being frightened into voting "Yes". It takes some brass neck for those who have put up tens of thousands of posters claiming the treaty means ruin and desolation for Ireland to accuse their opponents of being negative.

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