Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is to be hoped there are more people at work, but we did not reach the targets in the last quarter. Many jobs have been the result of people who have left our shores. All of us in the House want to see growth.

Is this what economic sovereignty looks like? Ireland has met the austerity targets, and now we have expenditure benchmarks to prevent actual investment in the economy. Economic sovereignty is not what we hoped it would be and what it used to be, but perhaps this is the new world in which we are living. The Minister, Deputy Howlin, told us the Government is negotiating on this matter. That would normally be a positive statement, but unfortunately it does not instil huge amounts of confidence, as it comes from a Government that has failed to convince the European Parliament, the European Commission, a single other member of the European Council or the ESM to support the recapitalisation of Ireland's pillar banks.

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In a telling and worrying aside, the Minister, Deputy Brendan Howlin, whose party has effectively supported every EU treaty, now says he does not believe a one size fits all policy suits. Unfortunately, it is a little late for that admission, considering how far we have gone down the road in that type of analysis. However, his admission is a breakthrough of sorts. My colleague, Matt Carthy, MEP, recently wrote directly to the ESM chief, Klaus Regling, to try to cut through the spin. Significantly, Mr Regling replied: "It does not seem likely that the DRI will be used retroactively." This is a concern, yet we are being told in the House that this a vague possibility and that the Government can still apply for it.

Many Irish people believe the European Union has kicked us around with its harsh austerity targets. We now know that Jean Claude Trichet, in his letters to the then Finance Minister, bullied Ireland into adopting pro euro positions. We do not know on whose mandate or on what legal basis he did this, but we know that he did it and that Fianna Fáil and the Green Party folded. Now the new EU rules will not allow us to make important investments to improve the viability of the economy and the question of getting back the people's money put into bad banks is moving further off the table. We are told that we have regained our economic sovereignty, but the question is: economic sovereignty for whom and for what?

The forthcoming European Council meeting will also discuss the Commission's plans to mobilise €300 billion in investment between 2015 and 2017. I have continually called in the House for greater investment by the European Union to kick-start fledgling economies and tackle social inequality. This investment plan sounds good when we read the headlines, but when we read into the detail, it simply does not work. Jean-Claude Juncker intends to take €16 billion from the EU budget to fund this package, yet the European Parliament committee is all over the place in this regard and still waiting for the Council to present it with the latest draft budget which will undoubtedly provide for more cuts and hardship. Meanwhile, member states, SMEs, research centres and universities are still awaiting payment. People are waiting for what they were promised, not empty promises that distract attention from previous shortfalls.

The growing deficit of €23.4 billion also needs to be addressed. The European Union must be able to pay its massive debts and this proposal from Jean-Claude Juncker will do nothing to help ease that predicament. I agree that we need investment, for which Sinn Féin, with many others across Europe, has consistently called. However, this proposal is not the way to go about it, as it will create nothing more than a financial house of cards. Mr. Juncker having oversight of it is like throwing the fox into the hen house, considering that he was President of the Commission which presided over the worst austerity crisis, while, at the same time, enabling states to be tax havens. This proposal is nothing but a road map for disaster. It appears that for the Commission, it is simply business as usual, but what we need is a public investment programme and a new approach to end austerity. That is our argument and the message we hear across Europe. People want to see a different approach and this argument has dominated their debate.

Last week Jean-Claude Juncker, remarkably and disturbingly, stated he wanted "familiar faces" to be in power in Greece, ahead of parliamentarians gathering to elect the President. He also called on Greeks to ensure they avoided "extreme forces" coming to power. The EU economics Commissioner, Pierre Moscovici, said at a press conference in Athens on Tuesday that the Commission would respect all democratic decisions of the country, "but of course we also have our own preference." We know that this means the Commission wants to have its pals back in power and the same approach being rolled out for the Greek people to be rolled out across Europe. This is clear political interference by the European Commission and its ham-fisted veiled threats are a crude ill-thought out attempt to influence these crucial elections. Does the Taoiseach condone these veiled threats and, more importantly, will we get an answer to this question? Will he publicly call on the Commission to refrain from interfering in any election within member states, as the Commission has previous form in this regard? Former European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said it would be "extremely difficult, if not impossible" for an independent Scotland to join the European Union, ahead of Scotland's crucial independence referendum. This directly influenced and interfered in that referendum and all sides agree that his interference did not help.

I understand international affairs will be discussed at the European Council meeting also. Last week the Dáil passed a Sinn Féin motion calling on the Government to officially recognise the state of Palestine. I welcome the support of the Government and all parties which supported the motion which was warmly welcomed by the Palestinian Government and its people. Tragically, a Minister in the Palestinian Government, Ziad Abu Ein, died on the day the motion passed, after he was physically attacked by Israeli soldiers while attending a peaceful olive tree planting ceremony in the occupied West Bank. The European Parliament is poised to vote "Yes" today on a motion on the recognition of Palestine. Will the Taoiseach raise the issue of recognising the state of Palestine at the forthcoming European Council meeting and will he explain that both Houses of the Oireachtas now support this position?

The US Senate report on torture by the CIA provides shocking confirmation of the extent to which torture was part and parcel of how the CIA operated for many years. It reveals that the torture in secret prisons run by the CIA was even more extreme than previously known and that it included appalling practices such as rectal feeding, waterboarding, sleep deprivation and direct threats to the families of detainees. It also exposed the complicity of some European states in these awful practices and crimes. Although we know that many European states were complicit in the torture and rendition operations of the CIA, as has been well documented by the media for a decade or more, no European officials or politicians have been held to account. We are aware that this happened on the watch of many Governments, but the response is always that there is no such evidence or information. However, it is clear that this has happened to detainees, some of whom were just dumped in the desert or on the side of a road and then had to pick up the threads of their lives.

Many of America's European allies were deeply involved in the CIA programme and the CIA's activities would not have been possible without the direct help of Britain and, possibly, 20 other European nations. European states that took part in the CIA operations were complicit in violating fundamental human rights, the Geneva conventions and the UN convention against torture. Will the Taoiseach specifically raise this issue at the European Council meeting and call on European states to come clean on their role in this unjustified torture programme? Given the growing and overwhelming evidence that CIA aeroplanes involved in rendition operations passed through Shannon Airport, surely it is time for the Government to admit that mistakes were also made here and initiate a full investigation into Ireland's involvement in torture by the CIA and the rendition of individuals through our air space.

Like others, I welcome the remarks of the Taoiseach regarding the children who were murdered in Pakistan and I would like to be associated with them. The images on television of children lying on the ground with visible wounds and being interviewed about what they had been through appalled everyone. It was proposed that a book of condolence be opened in the House and, as a former education and skills spokesperson, I would like to be associated with that.

To end on a more positive note, I wish the Minister of State well in the discussions. He has huge responsibility but the different positions being adopted in Europe, particularly in respect of investment, are important. We clearly need new investment and we need to work our way out of the crisis facing many European states. There are two ways forward and I would like to think that Ireland will step up to the plate and clearly get behind working our way out but, as part of that, investment is needed and a budget to suit.

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