John Halligan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to share time with Deputies Seamus Healy and Richard Boyd Barrett.

I congratulate and compliment Deputy Dominic Hannigan on his chairmanship of the Joint Committee on European Union Affairs. I note Deputy Timmy Dooley's fine contributions. I am afraid all the niceties are over after that little piece.

Today is seen as a celebration of Ireland's membership of the European Union and also of the Union's contribution to Ireland. It is a reminder of what we agreed to 40 years ago when it was then called the European Economic Community. If any person outside Leinster House or on any street in Ireland were asked for his or her thoughts on the European Union, I doubt if the word, "community" would be in the reply. The Irish public perception of the Union has been seriously challenged in recent times. These days, Irish people associate it with the policies run to suit Germany, in the main, and, to a lesser extent, France. This makes sense because Germany and France account for close to 50% of EU GDP. When Irish people think of the European Union, they think of the European Central Bank, the policies of which are decimating the quality of life of thousands of hard-working and innocent people. Instead of a collaboration of countries with a common goal of peace, economic growth and mutual assistance, the European Union of today is a collection of small nations subject to the policies of economic domination by major powers. It is a Union in which promises are broken, like the promise given to Ireland that the link between bank and sovereign debt would be broken. That broken promise has saddled a generation of Irish children yet not born with an unbearable debt burden. Well paid PR experts in Ireland and across Europe can spin all the stories they like about a European Union of democratic values.

Nobody believes that hype anymore, not least our own President, who reflected public opinion recently when he felt compelled to speak about the devastating effect austerity measures are having on the country. The people who founded what became the EU envisaged a Europe in which most people had work, yet the most recent figures show that approximately 26 million people are unemployed across the member states. Further, 150 million people are at risk of poverty and social exclusion. In Ireland, 700,000 people are living in poverty while an estimated 5,000 are homeless. Policies implemented by the so-called troika, which we are told are being pursued for the greater good of the State and Europe, have the country on its knees. If proof is required, I invite any EU leader to visit my constituency, in which one in five people are unemployed and one in three people under 25 are without work and have little optimism about gaining employment in the region. If one walks down any street in Ireland, one will see an increasing number of businesses boarded up. If one talks to small business owners, they will recount the weekly if not daily battle to stay afloat.

While these people and thousands like them await anxiously the day on which we turn the corner, the grim reality is that the EU's Europe 2020 strategy has moved us towards a structure of economic governance that makes austerity policies a permanent fixture. The much-applauded stability mechanism will ensure more bank bailouts at the expense of ordinary people. There is no question about it. We cannot keep ignoring the fact that people in Ireland, Greece, Portugal and elsewhere are suffering the terrible consequences of policies which are designed primarily on the basis of their impact on the speculative markets rather than their compassion and empathy for the predicament of European citizens. While youth employment across Europe stands at one in four - and is almost 60% in some countries - the EU continues to adhere to a version of logistical economic theory, the assumptions of which have little or nothing to do with compassion. In some member states of the EU, an entire generation is getting lost. It is hardly what the people who founded the EU envisaged. Unless the desperate calls for reform of the ECB are listened to and the dual strategy of price stability and growth is adopted, this will continue.

How can the people of Ireland have any faith in Europe when they see what has happened to their country? It is a country that was rich and was recognised globally as one of the best countries in which to live. Look at it now. Nearly a quarter of the population are unemployed and 700,000 people are impoverished. We talk about a European policy which is intended for the betterment of the country, yet two in ten children go to school without sufficient food or proper clothing. When 150 million people across Europe are in poverty and 26 million are unemployed, these policies have failed. They have failed the European people and the ordinary, everyday working person. Certainly, they have failed the Irish people.

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