Patrick Nulty (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Murphy for sharing time.

I first wish to put on record the scandalous way in which the Oireachtas was treated this day last week. Members were presented with very complex legislation in the dark of night and were obliged to analyse it and decide on their vote. It was profoundly and deeply undemocratic. Any citizen observing the behaviour of the Government last week in railroading that legislation through without any attempt to debate it properly would have to have contempt for the way the Government treated the Irish people and Members who have been given a mandate by Irish citizens to represent them.

I voted against the legislation based on the important legal principle of informed consent. We have a duty under the Constitution to analyse legislation forensically and that was not possible for Members of the Oireachtas last week. It was a shameful indictment of the processes in the House.

While it stands to reason that the deal which has been negotiated is an improvement on the catastrophic situation the country finds itself in on bank debt, an improvement is not a sufficient change to warrant support. We learned two things over the past week. We learned that Irish citizens will have to pay back every red cent incurred through the disastrous greed-driven policies of bankers, developers and the politicians who danced to their tune for many years. We learned also that just like in September 2008, when push comes to shove and it really matters, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael vote together. They always stick together when the big financial interests are at stake. Last week, Fianna Fáil, the party that guaranteed Anglo Irish Bank in a disastrous move for the country, backed the Government up 100%, walking over the cliff like lemmings. We know now that real and substantial political change cannot happen while Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael play musical chairs across the House. We require a radical transformation in Irish politics.

We have heard a great deal about how the ratings agencies, international investors and the financial and corporate press view the so-called deal. They are entitled to a view and in a global economy we must listen to what they have to say. I judge any deal, however, on its impact on the citizens I represent: on the mother who is trying to access speech and language therapy for her young son or daughter, on the father who lost his job in construction and is desperately hoping that there will be economic stimulus to rejuvenate construction and build infrastructure to get him back to work, and on the people with elderly parents whom they want to see experience dignity in later life. Unfortunately, Deputy Michael Creed let the cat out of the bag earlier in the debate. Not one cut will be reversed and not one attack on living standards will be modified by the deal. That is why I oppose the deal. We must reject the odious bank debt. The Government should have suspended the payments. A majority of Deputies were elected with a mandate to suspend and stop those payments.

The 800 workers in IBRC were treated with contempt. I spoke to some of them today who I represent in my constituency of Dublin West. Their rights have been trampled all over. Their access to information and basic labour rights was completely disregarded. It is absolutely shameful in the current context. I will oppose the resolution. We should not have paid the promissory note. We should have stood up for Irish citizens and said as the French do, "Non"; no we will not pay. Instead, we should develop a new economic strategy based on investment, growth and jobs and not on crippling austerity which does not and has not worked. Anyone with even a cursory understanding of economics recognises that now.

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