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

Throughout 2011 he said that Ireland's problems were entirely its own fault. He went to Berlin and the strongest argument he could muster was that it would be a win for the whole team to help Ireland. By October last year he had finally started to recognise the role of the European Central Bank and EU-imposed policies in driving Ireland out of the bond market. On Monday he sought to ratchet this up a bit more. He could not help throwing in a few partisan digs and heaping praise on his Government. He even managed to keep a straight face when attacking a bank guarantee for which he voted and which he re-enacted twice as Taoiseach. He also ignored his own repayment of unguaranteed, unsecured bonds long after the European panic had died down.

Many people were struck on Monday by the fact that the new sharper demand for relief comes from a Government which has spent most of the past month declaring that it has sorted out everything to do with bank debt. The speeches of the Taoiseach and Tánaiste about how they have closed a chapter on bank-related debt are now apparently forgotten. This ongoing inconsistency is not just confusing for the public but it gets in the way of Ireland achieving the scale of relief which the justice of its case deserves.

In the debate on the promissory note deal I laid out a series of additional reliefs which Ireland deserves on the basis of being treated equally and in light of policies agreed after 2010. In the midst of the Government's euphoria my party welcomed the deal but pointed out major, in fact possibly more significant, issues which had not yet been dealt with. There is nowhere on the record a statement from the Government setting out all of the measures from which it believes Ireland should benefit. The Government has not yet published information covering more than the next two years' impact of the promissory note deal. We know what it means for long-term re-financing but the net interest cost to the State has not been outlined and is entirely subject to ECB intervention.

There are several outstanding areas in which Ireland deserves further relief. Existing loans should be placed on the same duration and interest rates as those available to others. Last week the Government attempted to spin that it was delivering a breakthrough for Ireland. It quickly emerged that the EU is considering a deal which involves each of the bailout countries. There is no Ireland-specific initiative. The sustainability of current bailouts is crucial for market confidence for all eurozone countries. This should have been on this week's agenda. The ECB should return to Ireland all the profits it is making on the holding of Irish debt. It is making half a billion euro in profit on Irish bonds and this should be returned just as similar profits are being returned to Greece. The ECB should allow the Central Bank of Ireland to retain its new holding of Irish bonds to maturity. If these are sold as soon as possible, which is something elements of the ECB says it wants and has the power to demand, it will cost us €1 billion a year in lost interest. This would wipe out most of the benefit of the deal for our annual budget. We need to define legacy debts and the role of the European stability mechanism in returning funds to Ireland as a result of Ireland's role in supporting the euro currency when it took on board such substantial bank debt, particularly in the pillar banks. Taken together, these measures represent a large sum of money which would relieve pressures on services and struggling families.

London was probably the worst place for the Taoiseach to go to open a new line of argument on Europe because of the attitude of the Conservative government to the Union. Its agenda is a destructive one which wants to strip Europe back to being merely a free market.

It rejects the broader more progressive agenda of the Union which is vital for ordinary citizens. Britain has opted out of trying to help Europe through its crisis. A tough message in Berlin or Frankfurt would have been far more impressive.

The principal decision which will be taken at the summit is to sign off on the latest part of the European semester. This process embodies the overall economic strategy of the Union. The draft conclusions confirm the idea that European leaders continue to believe that fiscal controls are the primary means for tackling the crisis. They are holding to this line in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The only people who believe there is no need for anyone to cut their deficits are those who either ignore reality or are only interested in exploiting public suffering.

There are many countries such as Ireland where the facts of deficit and debt levels mean that bringing down the deficit is an essential part of restoring confidence. Of course, there are many ways of doing this and our Government has chosen to do so in a way which is directly undermining public support for fiscal changes. However, the majority of member states do not face similar conditions. The co-ordinated and ongoing contraction of public spending is damaging the European economy. Common discipline has been adopted for dealing with deficits but no such common discipline has been adopted for badly needed stimulus. In recent weeks, a series of studies has confirmed that the pan-European fiscal contraction is not only driving down growth but also reducing government revenues and, thus, making it harder to hit deficit targets. The policies which the summit will re-confirm this week are directly damaging Europe and driving unemployment.

The fiscal treaty contains provisions which allow budgetary adjustments over a longer period. For countries which have a sustainable debt situation, the lack of any proposed stimulus funding threatens to make the recession worse. The European Council President, Mr. Van Rompuy, has written to all EU leaders to ask that they use this summit to give an extra push to Single Market measures. He has said, as did the Taoiseach on Monday, that these proposals are core to delivering growth. Broadening and deepening the Single Market is in the best interests of Ireland because of our highly competitive sectors which will benefit. It may also help slightly increase the long-term growth trend of the Union as a whole. What it certainly is not, however, is a way of tackling the crisis at hand. There are no projections from any economic body showing these Single Market measures having a significant impact in the next few years.

In light of this, it is wrong for the Government to be acting as if this is the way for Europe to tackle the crisis. It is much worse that the Government sounds as if it is signing up to the Tory agenda of reducing Europe to a free-trade area. This is the attitude which has led to a cut in the European Union's budget at a time when it badly needs an increase. It is also the attitude that means vital social and economic policies of the Union are being cut back. One cannot claim to have an agenda for growth when the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, and the Research Horizon 2020 budgets will be cut by over 10%.

This summit is considering no urgent measures to help Europe's struggling regions. It is recommitting the Union to a narrow agenda, based solely on fiscal controls and encouraging trade. It will ignore the need for stimulus spending by those who can afford it. It will address none of the urgently needed structural reforms to the Union. This summit will be another missed opportunity and may, unfortunately, see European leaders waiting for the next crisis before snapping out of their growing complacency.

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