Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the work of Deputy Thomas Pringle and the Technical Group and I thank them for allowing me to share their speaking time.

People are genuinely afraid of what lies ahead for them in the eurozone. We are faced with a massive debt burden which will fall on future generations, people who had nothing to do with incurring the debt. People who have not yet been born will pay taxes to pay off this massive debt. We lost an opportunity for a write down and I will always regret that.

Our autonomy in terms of looking after and governing ourselves is being taken away on a continuous basis. The diktats that affect our farming community, our environmental interests and so forth all come from Europe. Funnily enough, if people in France or Greece are told by the European leaders they must do something, they will resist and fight. However, if we are told to jump, our politicians reply, "Exactly how high do you want us to jump?". It has been proven that the policies of austerity are not working. People are crippled by debt. They are demoralised and fed up. They are also genuinely worried about the future of the eurozone. There are currently 427,000 people unemployed in Ireland. How many people have left this country over the last number of years? If they had stayed here they would undoubtedly be on the live register because there is no work for them.

The politics of austerity are not working. We must generate and create work. I genuinely believe that our political leaders in Europe do not care about the future of Ireland. All they want to do is squeeze the last drop of blood and the last euro they can from us. There is a severe imbalance in the eurozone at present. I believe the euro crisis will continue for many years and it will be a long time before Ireland will be able to return to the markets to secure funding. The farming community is terrified of what the future holds due to the changes in the single farm payment and other supports. These supports are necessary if they are to survive into future years and be able to pass their family farms to their children and grandchildren.

We must all work together but we cannot simply lie down or bow down for everything. We do not want to go over to Europe to be patted on the head, as Deputy Mattie McGrath said. That actually happened and it was not nice to see it. We are a proud nation. We are a nation of workers, if we had the opportunity to work. We want to stand up for ourselves and earn our keep. We do not want to be bowing all the time and accepting everything that is thrown at us. That has been the case not just under this Government but also under previous Governments. Again, our response to Europe is to ask how high it wants us to jump. I do not agree with that. It is wrong.

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