Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I commend Deputy Thomas Pringle on tabling this well-researched and carefully crafted Private Members' motion. Like most Private Members' motions from the Independent group or the Technical Group, there is little interest in it. A recent motion was tabled by Deputy Tom Fleming and during the debate on it, the Minister finished her script seven minutes before the end. She sat down and the Chamber fell idle for seven minutes even though the Government accepted the motion. I would have thought some Government Members would be interested and that some backbenchers would be present in the Chamber if Ministers cannot be here. Sin mar atá sé.

This is the 40th anniversary of joining what we called the EEC. I remember, as a buachaill óg, canvassing for it and supporting it. It was my first time being involved in politics, and from the agricultural point of view, it was sold as a wonderful group of countries supporting each other in a European-wide movement. This is the third or fourth time we have had the European Presidency and this time we are in the depths of a severe crisis of austerity. The Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, who is in the Chamber, is making a hames of it because he promised us so much when he was in our position and I was on the opposite side. He told us what he was going to do with the bondholders and everything else and how he was going to transform everything when the last shower, including myself, made a hames of it.

I voted for the bank guarantee. I was summoned to Dublin and I was told that if we did not vote for it, the euro would be gone overnight, there would be no money in the ATMs and, worse, we could not quantify the number of credit unions that would be closed down. I begged the then Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan, to come home and leave the deal on the table because I knew they would be over after us. We could have got a better deal, as the Tánaiste rightly said when he voted against it. When he got into the driving seat in the cockpit, the Tánaiste had a change of heart and decided to support everything he had spoken against.

Deputy Catherine Murphy referred to being in a party with the Tánaiste opposing the Maastricht treaty. I have an idea how many parties Deputy Catherine Murphy was in but I cannot count on two hands the number of parties the Tánaiste was in. It is like the flight of the earls, from party to party to where he is now.

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