Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this discussion. I bear no ill will towards either the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste or the Minister of State, Deputy Lucinda Creighton, and wish them well in their engagements in the European Union. However, the public has grown weary of the process of Ministers wasting jet fuel travelling elsewhere in Europe. The Government should have put a double carbon tax on that fuel expenditure because it is a waste of time and money. I remember the Tánaiste's righteous indignation when he stood on the other side of the House and used phrases such as "economic treason", yet he has the audacity to accept Ireland's share of the glory when the European Union is awarded the Nobel peace prize.

I am not concerned with discussing any country other than our own. In the fullness of time, when the history of this period is written, I expect that we might well deserve a Nobel prize. It will not, however, be for making peace but for picking up the shattered pieces of the Irish race. If the Government persists in the policies it is pursuing - the same policies pursued by its predecessors, among whom I was numbered before I stood up and railed against them - that is how the Tánaiste will be remembered. It would be a sad legacy for a man who began his career in student union politics before coming through various left-wing parties. How can he allow his party to become the mudguard for a capitalist party such as Fine Gael and be dictated to on issues which should be matters of strong principle for it, particularly in the budget.

The Taoiseach refuses to engage with Mrs. Merkel and company and tell them the real story of Ireland in 2011 and 2012. That must be done now and the troika should be told the same. It was incredible to wake up this morning and hear that, at the behest of the troika, or some greater power within it, the Government would change Irish law, perhaps as soon as next March, to allow the banks to carry out much greater numbers of savage repossessions. I urge the Tánaiste to recall Michael Davitt of the Land League and those who worked with him. He should also remember James Connolly whose life was commemorated in Clonmel last week. I was glad to welcome the Tánaiste to the town on that occasion. He must look into his conscience and consider whether he was elected to behave in this way, whether these are the policies he would seek to expound. He will surely agree that a mockery is being made of our democracy. I am very concerned because I do not understand how he has gone so wrong.

I watched the present Government when it was in opposition and most of the time I admired it. Whatever it is that happens when Deputies take those seats, we will have to reshuffle the House and put the seats on this side, or whatever, in order to change the contamination that has got into our being as a political race. We are subservient and no longer proud of ourselves and we do not stand up for our people, which is what we were elected to do. We should fight back and demand rights and respect rather than give the Taoiseach pats on the back and have awards and different images on front pages of magazines. I will not stray and use the wrong word. I wish him well, as I do the Tánaiste. However, the people are not able, willing or ready to suffer any more at the behest of the harsh austerity being imposed by the troika, whose representatives I have met on three occasions. The Government has done a good job in hoodwinking and fooling them and telling them untruths, a word I hate to use. I asked the troika people to send their own scouts into towns, villages and cities and workplaces to see what is going on and find out for themselves that what they are being told is a pack of gobbledegook. The reality of what is happening in Ireland must be brought home to the people in Europe.

The Government has the opportunity, in the EU Presidency it will assume shortly, to take this up, engage meaningfully and do the job it is paid to do, namely, to represent the Irish people as their solemn elected Government rather than to kowtow and lie down under the bully boys of Europe. We are entitled to a reasonable standard of living and time to pay back our debts - which we never fail to do. We are entitled to have a bit of dignity.

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