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

The Government has peddled the line over the past number of weeks that it cares about the ordinary citizens of this country and of Europe and that a "Yes" vote on the treaty is vital to secure the interest of ordinary citizens and to secure access to the European Stability Mechanism, which has been presented by the Government as some sort of salvation for this country. It has also pointed to Greece as a warning of the danger if the people of Ireland have the temerity to say that they have had enough of austerity, with the implication that disaster would be inflicted on them if they say "No".

The past week has exposed the Government's bogus claims and possibly has exposed the fact that the Government has been involved in a dishonest deception of the people with regard to its real stance on these matters. First we had the outrageous comments of the Taoiseach to a man who had worked for 30 years and was unemployed. He made the disgraceful comment that the man looked like a person who could do with a day's work. Then we had the outrageous comments from the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, making jokes about the suffering of the Greek people and referring to Feta cheese. One might consider these small aberrations, until one discovers in a report in Der Spiegel that the same Minister berated the Greek Government at the ECOFIN meeting for not imposing further austerity with sufficient vigour on the Greek people.

One begins to wonder, therefore, whether the real position of the Government is complete disregard and contempt for the people who have been the victims of the recession, lost their jobs and been the victims of austerity, whether in this country or in Greece. One wonders whether the reason it is trying to ram this fiscal treaty through is because it, like Chancellor Angela Merkel, is ideologically committed to the failed and discredited policy of austerity. One must wonder, when all the political forces in Europe, Greece, France and even the United States now insist that there be a change of course and that Europe begin to prioritise jobs and growth instead of the failed policy of austerity, why only Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Irish Government cling to the failed policy of austerity and continue to want to ram through this austerity treaty. Is it because Fine Gael is in the same European party as Angela Merkel, the European People's Party, that this is its real commitment? Its real commitment is an ideological allegiance to Angela Merkel and her disastrous policy of austerity, regardless of the consequences for the people of this country or of Greece. It is increasingly apparent this is the case.

This week has also exposed the bogus threat that Ireland would be cut loose from funding if we voted "No". When push came to shove and the Greek people finally found a political voice for their resistance that was willing to say "No, enough is enough" and that they would not wear any more austerity, the ECB and other voices in Europe suddenly started to say that they could not afford to let Greece go and wanted it to stay in the eurozone, because they know their involvement in Greece had nothing to do with protecting the interests of the Greek people and had everything to do with protecting the eurozone, the European financial system and their own self interests. This proves that if Greece has leverage and Europe is not willing to turf Greece out because of the danger of contagion, Ireland also has leverage. Ireland has the leverage to say "No", that it has had enough of austerity and that it is not working. It has the leverage to say it wants a fairer deal for the country. There is no question of us being thrown out of the Union or the eurozone or of having funding cut off. If Europe will not do it to Greece, how on earth will it do it to Ireland without contagion spreading throughout Europe and bringing down the whole European project?

It is about time the Government got a bit of backbone and stood with the forces in Europe who are resisting austerity and demanding that jobs, fairness and growth come first, instead of simply protecting the interests of bankers, bondholders and speculators.

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