Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We will shortly mark two years since the Government took office. This anniversary will see another outpouring of the self-congratulation which has become the hallmark of this Administration. The clear and growing disillusionment of members of the public with the Government is directly linked to its non-stop claims of action and leadership which do not have the slightest connection to reality. It is obvious to anyone who cares to examine the evidence that the Government does not have a strategy on Europe, other than a hope that something will turn up. It has shown an inexplicable reluctance to set out Ireland's case with clarity and urgency, has not undertaken any credible diplomatic initiative and has refused to provide the public with even basic information. It has put domestic party politics ahead of using the strongest arguments available to Ireland. It has also made, in full, the first repayment of the promissory note, while claiming it did not do so and has used most of its energy trying to claim credit for deals won by others and automatically extended to other countries.

As we rapidly approach the Government's self-declared deadline for the promissory notes, a pattern of dissembling complacency has been replaced by full-scale panic. All of the evidence available is that the Government's approach is doing active damage to Ireland's interests. Annoyance is growing at its inconsistent line, regular over-spinning of both minor and non-existent developments and use of contradictory arguments. For example, the Taoiseach states Ireland is already back in the bond market, while the Tánaiste states we are shut out of the market and facing a catastrophe unless the European Central Bank scraps most of the promissory note payments. The latter tells Europe that the Government could fall apart without a deal while the former informs the House the Government is rock solid and will be in place for a full five years, irrespective of what happens. Some Ministers have indicated that a deal will be used to stop the implementation of planned cuts, while others rushed out to claim all planned cuts and targets will remain fully in place. On occasion, at the same time albeit on different media outlets, one Minister will say negotiations are hitting obstacles, while another will claim everything is going grand.

The hard reality is that the Government has not supplied the Dáil or Irish people with a single piece of proper or factual information about anything to do with the current negotiations. Having spent a year and a half relegating the promissory notes to something to be handled by officials at a technical level, we have suddenly seen a burst of statements and activity. In what one journalist described as unprecedented in her many years of covering Presidencies, the Taoiseach and Tánaiste have suddenly started discussing promissory notes at European Council events which have nothing to do with the issue. She further stated that the reaction against the Government's behaviour has been very negative and it has not done anything to help Ireland's cause. Why the Tánaiste believed the EU-South America summit would take up Ireland's cause has yet to be explained.

This new burst of activity is purely about a Government trying to be seen to be doing something rather than actually getting something done. As both the European Council and Commission have stated repeatedly, while they wish Ireland well, they do not have anything to do with the final decision which is a matter for Ireland and the European Central Bank. It would have been a significant help to Ireland if the Council or Commission had stated formally that they do not consider that helping Ireland is prohibited under the ECB's statutes or the European treaties. Such a step would helped last year when the ECB President, Mario Draghi, was launching his radical moves to save the euro. However, this major moment of opportunity was missed.

Everything that is known about the negotiations has been supplied by journalists and ECB spokespersons. Two weeks ago, the Government claimed everything was going fine, even though it was fully aware that things were far from being fine. In the days subsequent to the Government's claim, a media report revealed that the ECB council has reacted negatively. Although first denied by the Government, the report was later confirmed by the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Varadkar, in one of his truth-telling episodes that do so much to annoy his senior colleagues.

A growing number of newspaper and broadcast journalists have exposed major differences between the Government's public statements and what is actually taking place. Each time the Government dismisses the work of these journalists, it subsequently emerges that the information they revealed was correct. The first such case occurred following the Taoiseach's first summit meeting when he claimed he rejected a demand that other leaders have said was never made. For almost a year, we were informed a breakthrough had been achieved because a joint technical paper was being drawn up, only to discover that no such technical paper existed.

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