Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The Minister has been celebrating his plan to exit the troika programme. Some of us believe this is a complete mirage, particularly in the light of the various budgetary surveillance and monitoring and post-programme monitoring rules that will be applied by the European Union and the troika. Furthermore, we will also be obliged to meet requirements to reduce our deficit and pay down huge debts that are not ours. We must do this over a specified period and in line with the fiscal treaty, for which the Government encouraged the people to vote. Will the Minister spell out what precisely our obligations will be under the EU rules for reducing both our debt and the deficit, particularly in the context of the fiscal treaty? Will he also indicate what the position will be on the issue of budgetary surveillance?

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