Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)

I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the debate. The EU has a long way to go to convince people of its sincerity and trust and the recent referendum showed that clearly when 50% of our citizens stayed at home on polling day. All politicians and Governments must reflect on this. Let us have a proper debate about the future direction of the Union. When 50% of the people stay at home rather than vote on an important referendum, that sends out a strong message about the lack of connection between them and the European project. That is why it is important to have independent voices to act as a watchdog, as most of the large political parties are sleepwalking on Europe and they do not seem to know what is happening on the day. The referendum, the banking crisis and the ongoing debate on the huge debt problem have demonstrated clearly that eurocrats are still sitting on the bench with ten minutes to go. They need a wake up call quickly.

I know where I stand on Europe and, as an internationalist, my political and economic world does not end in Berlin or Paris. However, most of the so-called pro-European politicians and political parties in the House do not know where they are going and that is not quality leadership. We also have a Taoiseach who will not participate in live media debates with party leaders or Independent Members. What kind of message does that send to the people of Ireland and Europe and to the millions of unemployed people throughout the Union? That reflects a lack of confidence, which is not what we need in a time of crisis. We need strong and decisive leaders and, sadly, that is lacking.

The Bill "is necessary to amend the European Communities Act 1972, in order to provide that the Protocol, amending the Protocol on transitional provisions annexed to the Treaty on European Union, to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and to the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community; and that the European Council Decision amending Article 136 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union with regard to a stability mechanism for Member States whose currency is the euro, shall form part of the domestic law of the State". That is the purpose of the legislation but again the Second Reading has been guillotined. This means the business of signing up to the ESM treaty and committing us to significant expenditure to help bail out Spain and other member states in the coming period could go through all Stages in the Oireachtas by the end of next week with minimal debate in the media about the long-term implications of these steps or awareness of what all this means among the public. The relation of the ESM treaty to the Article 136 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, TFEU, amendment of the EU treaties authorising it and to the fiscal treaty on which Irish voters decided last Thursday is set out in an excellent book entitled "A Tale of Two Treaties - A Citizens Guide to the Stability Treaties of 2012" by Cork solicitors, Joe Noonan and Mary Lenihan. It is important to deal with the detail of these issues.

The proposal to ratify the ESM treaty as it stands and to approve the Article 136 TFEU amendment to the EU treaties as authorising the stability mechanism envisaged in the ESM treaty is unlawful under EU treaties and are, therefore, unconstitutional in Ireland and other member states. We should examine these proposals closely. Constitutional challenges have been mounted to the ESM treaty and to the Article 136 TFEU amendment in our courts and in Estonia. Deputy Thomas Pringle has launched a constitutional challenge on these matters which opens in the High Court on 19 June. His lawyers are seeking a constitutional referendum on the ESM treaty. They also claim that "the EU treaties should be amended under a different provision of the Art. 48 TEU treaty revision procedure than that being currently used if the ESM treaty as it stands is to be lawfully ratified under European law." The Deputy's legal action is seeking to defend the principle - this has been often misrepresented - that the Union is an entity governed by the rule of law in the face of political attempts to change the European treaties by subterfuge and to open a way of transforming the current EMU into a fiscal-political union for the eurozone. I and many other Irish people share his concern that the integrity of the existing EU treaties and the Constitution be upheld in the face of an attempt by some eurozone governments to take the eurozone captive for their own ends and to organise the EMU on different principles from heretofore by means of the ESM treaty.

I have major concerns about what is happening in Ireland and the world generally regarding the financial crisis and the connections between finance, politics and current and former politicians. A number of top level politicians have recently become members of a secretive corporate billionaire and political society known as the Bilderberg group. Members openly express their desire to see protestors against their new world order "die in plane crashes" or label them as "cockroaches". I find these comments highly offensive and consider the secretive nature of their meetings a direct threat to democracy around the world, as there is mounting evidence to suggest the group's members have purposely engineered the global economic crisis for their own financial gain. The list of members is interesting. They include Paul Gallagher and Dermot Gleeson, former Attorneys General, Michael McDowell, former Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, the current Minister for Finance and Peter Sutherland of Fine Gael and Goldman Sachs International. The agenda of the group's meeting in 2011 includes direct references to the true scale of the Irish economic crisis and it can be seen that members of the group are actively trying to destroy the economy in order that they can personally profit from the financial crisis by investing in the private companies to which our State assets are being sold off at way below their true market value and by financially betting against Ireland on the international stock and currency markets.

See this speech in context