Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)

If the Government believes it got a resounding endorsement of its policies and approach of austerity to the crisis in the recent referendum, it did not. I represent one of the five constituencies which had a majority "No" vote, Dublin South-Central. It is no coincidence that five of the poorest and most working class constituencies voted "No". The reality is that those sections of the population who have felt the effects of austerity most voted "No". In some areas in my constituency the "No" vote was between 70% and 80%. The "Yes" vote will change nothing in the terms of the deal and the bank debt and re-entry to bond market funding. It is just another pat on the head for the Taoiseach and a brutal "Nein" from Germany in terms of any deal on the bank debt.

The Government is now in a trap of its own making. It claims that austerity and four years of a bailout programme are working but it is now being used by the IMF, the ECB and others to say that we must continue with the programme. If the Government were to change now it would be seen as an admission of the failure of its policies. We cannot put our future into an unaccountable, bureaucratic, unknown ESM entity. We are told that we are not like Greece yet we saw last night the dreadful scene of 1,400 people who queue daily for food parcels at the Capuchin centre in Dublin. That is the level many people have been forced down to at the moment, to queue publicly in the streets to try to get some food for their households on a daily basis.

Despite high levels of mass emigration, 30% of people are jobless. I wish to read into the record the figures that emerged today. The latest unemployment figures reveal that unemployment in this country now stands at 14.8% with 309,000 out of work. The Central Statistics Office found that employment fell by 1% or 18,100 since the same time last year while there has been an increase of 0.3% in the number out of work since the last quarter of 2011. Employment fell by 7,300 between January and March of this year after an increase of 11,100 in the last three months of last year. The number of long-term unemployed, which is even more startling, has risen from 7.8% to 8.9% in the past year. Among the 309,000 out of work the number of men unemployed increased over the year by 1.8% and, startlingly, female unemployment rose by 10.4% to 103,600. That is despite the paltry efforts of the Government to introduce JobBridge and create one job here and eight jobs there that were announced with great triumph in the media in the past few weeks of the campaign on the ESM treaty.

This is a reality check. The economy is not growing. We are still facing a massive mortgage debt crisis with more than 78,000 mortgage holders in arrears for more than 90 days. We have had talk but no action from the Government on the matter. In the debate on Private Members' business we made the point that property is sacrosanct in the Constitution.

That any challenge to property must be constitutionally tested represents a quagmire for the Government. This is not what people facing the pyrite situation, negative equity, job losses or wage cuts want to hear.

A reality check in the eurozone is necessary. It has been four years since the beginning of the crisis and we are nowhere near even a hint of a solution. It looks like another fund is being concocted for the Spanish crisis. With light conditions attaching, Spain will be allowed to access the EU's bailout funds to recapitalise Bankia. The can is being kicked down the road yet again. There is no prospect of the deal benefiting Ireland's bank debt.

I hope the Greek people bring matters to a head in their 17 June elections and that they vote in an anti-austerity majority. The austerity policy, the lack of action in respect of banks and the refusal to mutualise sovereign debt are sustaining the threat of a European depression pulling the world economy down. This is the serious situation we will face.

It is clear that no solution is forthcoming from the European business and political elites. People must take matters into their own hands. Revolt is spreading. There is revolt in Greece, where people are standing up and telling politicians they will not break the social contract made to the public following the Second World War. There is revolt in Spain, where lands are being occupied in response to mortgage debts and evictions. There is revolt in France, where there has been a rejection of Sarkozy's liberal policies. Revolt is developing in Holland. Only two weeks ago in the financial centre and on the streets of Frankfurt, 20,000 Germans came out against austerity.

As a European nation, we must begin deciding on what type of Europe we want. Given the rise of fascism throughout Europe in the 1930s as well as the depression, Leon Trotsky proposed the idea of a socialist united states of Europe, one that was based on solidarity and co-operation between its people and that used its wealth and resources for the benefit of all, not just the financial industrial elite who are today disgracefully bleeding Europeans dry to maintain their profits and elitism. This idea expresses the hopes and aspirations of millions of Europeans and is the only basis for a solution to the crisis.

See this speech in context