Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)

I am delighted to be able to speak on this Bill today. I am disappointed that it is being guillotined as I do not believe the guillotine is a proper implement to use on so much legislation. I was on the other side of the House for four years and I heard objections every day from the then Opposition to the use of the guillotine. I thought they were so disgusted with it that when they entered government, they would dispose of it or use it in very limited circumstances, but unfortunately almost every Bill has been guillotined.

While I do not have a problem with Deputy White's challenges to Sinn Féin policies, he claimed the Deputies of the Technical Group were hypocrites for opposing the guillotine this morning while not taking up their full time slots during the debate. I was not watching the debate so I do not know, but anybody can come in and speak for as long as he or she wants. I always try to fill my time slot and I often do not have enough time, but the Deputy was being high handed. He may not have been here during the last Dáil, but he was in the other House and he should know. A Member cannot just be black one day and be white the next. He is not in a position to lecture anybody, because the Government parties have broken every promise they made. The fire burning from the bondholders was going to be hotter than hell according to the Tánaiste, yet we now see the bondholders being protected and encouraged to engage in all kinds of practices and rewarded for it.

I came out for a reluctant "Yes" in the latter days of the debate on the treaty. Deputy White attacked people on the "No" side, but there were many disingenuous comments and bully boy tactics on the "No" side too. Somebody said to me that the ballot paper should have contained a "Yes", "No" or "Maybe". The Minister for Finance, who I am glad to see sitting here, said the budget would be much harder to frame if we did not pass it. He later said that we would have an easier budget if it were passed, so we look forward to that. There was innuendo and political spin right throughout the campaign and it was very hard for me to make up my mind. I have never voted "No" to a treaty so far, but I have learned to my cost that when the ink is dry on the treaties, they have not been much good to Ireland. As one who supported the Lisbon treaty the first and second time, I feel our fingers were burned. The Irish people are embittered by this Government because its parties promised so much. They did not need to make one promise during the lifetime of the last Government, of which I was a member for a long time, because people were sick of that Government as it had become arrogant in its third term. Unfortunately, the feeling out there is that this Government is as arrogant after only 15 months.

I asked the Taoiseach to keep Ministers like Deputies Hogan and Shatter away from the debate so that we would not lose it. I note that he did, but the Minister - big Phil as I call him - could not resist coming out on "RTE News" on Thursday night to show he had not gone away. He did this even though he still has not published the guidelines for the wastewater treatment systems, and even though he announced a consultation period of three months, yet people could not engage with him. The website was wrong and when my daughter had a problem with it, she called a number and was told she should not have called that number and was asked who gave it to her. The whole thing was a mess and the website had to be taken down. We now find the Minister is offering registration from April Fools' Day to June for €5.

I am now getting calls to my office from constituents, because big Phil is back and roaming the land like a Celtic tiger. People are being told they cannot register. The site for registration has been abandoned and is not functioning. People are being codded all the way to the bank.

Once again, I will vote, reluctantly, for the Bill. Throughout the referendum campaign, the Tánaiste, the Ministers for Finance and Transport, Tourism and Sport and many others said the treaty had nothing to do with banking. Deputy Alex White corrected Deputies and accused them of speaking about things that were not in the treaty. We were told repeatedly that the treaty had nothing to do with banking. When the campaign was over the line, and I commend the Government members on their hard work and on achieving a "Yes" vote, those members of the Government were full of glee and excitement. They got carried away and did a phone around. They did a telephone blitz of their friends to tell them what good Europeans we are and that we wanted a better banking deal. When they phoned around, however, they found they had very few friends, if any.

What happened in the Dáil yesterday morning was an outrage. The Taoiseach stonewalled all requests to divulge the substance of his phone call to Chancellor Merkel. Did Angela sing the Jim Reeve's song and say "Put your sweet lips a little closer to the phone, Enda", or whatever she calls him? Is that what he did? The Taoiseach once told us he and Chancellor Merkel had each other on speed-dial. Does he have her on M for Merkel and does she have him on NG for nice guy, because he is the best boy in the class? Did she pat him on the head and thank him for winning the referendum vote? Does she know about our referendum or is she even interested in what we are doing in Ireland?

There have been several mentions of the previous bank bailout. I spoke to the former Minister, the late Brian Lenihan, twice on the day the deal was signed. Tomorrow will be the first anniversary of his death, God rest him. I asked him to come home and leave it to them, because what he was signing was not a bailout but a clean out. We were forced to clean out our pension fund to the tune of €23 billion before we got a shilling, and our European friends charged us interest at nearly 3% more than the IMF.

I am worried about the lack of accountability of the ESM. It cannot be brought before any parliament or independent body. It will be another out-of-control quango. Ordinary people, small businesses, small farmers and working people are being crucified with banking debt while speculators and bondholders are getting away. The people are hurting and are very cross over this. It is not fair, just or proper.

Spain seems to be edging ever closer to getting ESM funding, and I hope it does. We should also get what we are entitled to because we voted for the bank guarantee and took the so-called bailout, although we should not have done so. I voted for the bank guarantee and I have regretted it every day since, because we were told lies by the banks. We are still being told lies by them.

I was glad to hear Mr. John Trethowan of the Credit Review Office say yesterday the banks are not lending. We had a discussion with him a couple of months ago when he said they were lending. They are not doing so. They are codding us all the way to the bank.

I was delighted to hear the Minister for Finance say last night that we would be back in the bond markets in three weeks time. I certainly hope we will, in whatever limited capacity, and I look forward to that. I compliment the Minister on his efforts. He has a difficult job. However, we cannot have austerity followed by more austerity. Our people are weary from it. Our businesses have flown from the land and the spirit of enterprise has been buried or kicked around. Law-abiding people who pay their taxes, pay their VAT on time and pay PRSI, insurance and pension contributions cannot get a shilling of credit. Their overdrafts are being withdrawn or they are being forced to convert them to term loans. Banks call this lending and report as much to the Minister and his officials.

There is a problem in the Department of Finance. Too many officials in the Department do not understand business or the real world. This is equally true of the current and previous Governments, because these officials are the permanent government. When I asked the late Minister who was with him on the fateful day of the so-called bailout, he named the three senior officials. I told him none of them had ever stood behind a counter or had ever had to set up and run a business. They were all career civil servants. I am not knocking all career civil servants, but we need business people in the Civil Service and in the Department of Finance to show us how to get out of this quagmire and to stand up to Chancellor Merkel et al. They know the value of a pound and of a euro, unlike those who can write cheques but have no accountability and can make an accounting error of €3 billion with no fear of reprimand.

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