Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is okay, Ming, we are still friends.

Austerity has been shoved down our necks by Europe. The bailout was shoved down our necks and as Deputy Luke 'Ming' Flanagan said, it impacts on just about every citizen on the island, which is unfair.

When we signed the Nice and Lisbon treaties, we paved the way for big business to flourish at the expense of the ordinary citizen. It now wants far greater control of our social services and those two treaties facilitate it. We will see far more privatisation in the next ten years, which will be permitted under the terms of the Nice and Lisbon treaties.

On Tuesday night the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Rabbitte, explained why, because of EU law, it would be very difficult to stop Tesco taking over a large chunk of our post offices. He is right; that is what will happen. Despite all the nice talk in here last night about saving post offices, EU law will ensure there is no impediment to Tesco getting its way and God help the poor post offices.

Most big decisions are money related. A road to bypass New Ross in Wexford is planned. The Government has boasted that it can borrow money at an interest rate of 3.5%, which is good and fair play to it. However, we are not allowed to borrow money at an interest rate of 3.5% to build a bypass in New Ross because of EU rules. We are allowed to do a PPP, where the cost to the State will be closer to 20%. While it might be over a longer period of time, it means that if we want to spend money on infrastructure we are driven into the hands of the markets and investors.

Speaking of big decisions being money orientated and related to the maximisation of the accumulation of profit, the latest trouble in Ukraine is frightening and I hope the EU plays a responsible role. At stake in Ukraine is a battle for economic control by Russia on the one hand and the US and EU on the other. It is the usual colonial carve-up. The losers will be the people of Ukraine. Ukraine's problems will be solved better by non-interference. The less that Russia, the EU and the US interfere in Ukraine, the better are the chances of the Ukrainians reaching a good solution. There will be a sad story there if the EU, the US and Russia continue on their present paths.

The same problem applies in Syria. The conflict there escalated when Russia, Iran, the US and Saudi Arabia got more interested in what was going on. They decided to play out their games, which is great for the arms industry because so many of them are used there. However, the devastation there is unbelievable. The devastation in Ukraine will also be unbelievable if Europe does not play a responsible role - and the same applies to Russia and the US.

From reading the mainstream media here, one would believe that there were good boys and bad boys in Ukraine. I would have no sympathy for the man who was thrown out, but the crowd that will replace him are seriously anti-Semitic and very right wing. Many of them have come from organisations that supported the Nazis during the Holocaust. Bad things are coming down the tracks and the EU should be careful about taking sides. Ms Yulia Tymoshenko has been released from prison but one of them is as corrupt as the other. It was interesting to see that Ms Tymoshenko bought a beautiful house for her daughter in one of the most expensive parts of London not long ago.

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