Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Bill but before I do, I refer to a comment made by Deputy Kelleher. He said there was a flaw in the machinery of the Government in negotiating a better deal for Ireland. The only flaw I see is his credibility. He talks about the immoral, unfair and unsustainable debt that has been placed on the shoulders of the people by the banking institutions. It is a pity he did not wail about the immoral, unfair and unsustainable banking debt placed on the shoulders of the people when I am sure it came up for discussion at a meeting of his parliamentary party in the recent past but, to borrow a phrase from one of his colleagues, we are where we are.

I agree with the sentiments expressed by the previous speaker. Contrary to what some of the commentators might like to believe, the result of the referendum proved that the electorate went out of its way to be informed and to make a decision in the best interest of the State, itself and future generations. It was not taken down a blind alley by a side show of erroneous and other issues which had absolutely nothing to do with the referendum. It distilled it down into a very simple question. Where would Ireland or any country requiring assistance in the future access the money? Not only did the "No" side not have any credibility, it had no solution or answer. One of its main spokespersons went on "Prime Time" one night and when she was asked where Ireland would access the money in future, she said what Sinn Féin normally says and trumpeted out that we would borrow a bit out of the National Pensions Reserve Fund. Given the number of times the National Pensions Reserve Fund has been mentioned in this House as a source of funding, there would want to be a couple of trillion euro in it. She wound up being short a few billion in the course of her remarks. I wondered as I watched the television if should would root around in her handbag to try to see if it was in it. The people who watched that said to themselves these people are just not credible. They did not have a solution and they were cynical in their exploitation of a referendum in the national interest to advance their own warped political ideology. The people in general saw through that and voted "Yes" in large numbers.

By doing that, the Irish people have given the Government a mandate to get a much better deal for the country in respect of what was saddled on it by the previous Government. This Government, unlike those in every other EU member state, has the moral authority and the backing of the people to go to Europe to say that this unsustainable debt must be managed in a different way. As Deputy Tom Hayes said, the ESM may very well prove to be a mechanism in which that can be looked at if, for arguments sake, banks can access it directly rather than having to go through the sovereign. The debt would then be taken off the shoulders of the people. In that type of situation, the stability of the currency not only relates to how the State performs, but to how the banking institutions in the European Union perform. This is not only an Irish issue but one which threatens contagion throughout the EU and it needs to be contained. The fact that there is a €500 billion fund available without a ceiling being placed on it for individual member states gives an element of security which, to be honest, one would want rocks in one's head not to support.

Those in the Opposition who say we should go to Brussels and renegotiate it are the same people who up to last week said we could access funding through the EFSF knowing the EFSF will run out in three years time. When one asks them from where we will borrow when it runs out, they scratch their heads and talk about something one might find on the back of a Weetabix box. They have no solution as to where this country will find the resources needed to fund the public finances.

I wish the Minister for Finance, the Taoiseach, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform and the Tánaiste well in this regard. There is no doubt the biggest issue which will confront this State probably in a generation is finding a mechanism which will allow growth and recovery. This is one part of a jigsaw. As the Taoiseach and everybody else said last week, by voting "Yes", things would not get better overnight but by voting "No", they would get an awful lot worse. We have taken one gigantic step forward on the road to recovery. I wish the Minister well and know he is committed to getting a better deal for Ireland and pursuing a growth agenda which is in everybody's interest. I support the Bill.

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