Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

That the Bill is relatively straightforward does not mean that I will support it. In fact, I will not. There is supposed to be significant firepower available to ensure banking crises such as the ones which happened in 2008 and 2010 do not recur. However, it appears that the architecture that has been constructed around the ESM will be onerous in the event of a crisis. I remember the referendum and the near bullying of the people who were told they had to have this or they could land in the same situation again. However, the architecture appears to make it much more difficult than was anticipated to access the fund.

The direct recapitalisation instrument has attracted intense interest in this country. We were promised in principle that Ireland would be treated as a special case. We were unique, which, of course, was true. We made up 1% of the eurozone in terms of our population but accounted for 42% of the banking costs. That happened because we had intergovernmentalism. The European systems did not work and the institutions failed the citizens who were the main casualties. We are now looking at the result of this by way of extra taxation and services being at breaking point for the want of very small amounts of money. Instead of seeing the European Union acting as a unit, we saw an intergovernmental approach, with the French and German axis driving the system and getting what they wanted.

We were obviously given a commitment in relation to our legacy debt. It was vague and one must question whether it was worth the paper on which it was written. It is another example of the failure of institutions in Brussels to respond to a crisis in the interests of the people. It is no wonder that people reacted as they did in the European elections. There is increasing scepticism about European institutions as a consequence of what has happened directly to people and the failure of those institutions to protect citizens when they most needed to do so.

There has been no indication since the commitment was given that retrospective recapitalisation will ever take place; the opposite is the case. Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Finland spoke out against it and the then Commission President, Mr. Barroso, cast doubt on it. Will the Minister of State confirm that it is Ireland's intention to seek direct retrospective recapitalisation once the single supervisory mechanism comes into full operation on 4 November? Does he expect the other countries to agree? What information is available on this? We are tired of playing what has become a very long game-----

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