Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I commend Deputy Catherine Murphy on bringing forth this motion. The dog in the street knows that, like Ireland, most countries in Europe, including Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain, the PIGS, are carrying burdens they cannot afford. Every citizen in this country has bailed out the banks, in return for which they faced the big wand-stick from the Europeans, some of them unelected bureaucrats, in relation to how we should run our business.

People in this country are being evicted from their homes while at the same time the Government stands by the banks who are treating them with contempt. I was not involved in politics in 2011 but I listened every night to what was going on. I have heard how we had to do this, that and the other to pay our doctors and nurses, that Europe would not let us retain our own currency and that if we did so it would be the end of the world for us. The reality is we are now in a period of quantitative easing and the euro has lost approximately 20% of its value. What if we had gone down that other road? I believe it would have been a better road than the road we chose.

Greece is leading the pack. People in every country are living in deprivation. When it comes to the situation in which we find ourselves, I am reminded of a farmer travelling the road with debt in the back of his trailer, only to park it down the by-road. Current government debt is approximately €205 billion. We need to put up our hands and say that as a nation we cannot repay that debt. We need to call time on pulling the cover over our heads. We are in denial. Sooner or later we will have to say "stop".

I ask that the Government take on board this motion tabled by Deputy Catherine Murphy. Europe has trampled upon us in the past few years. The people of Ireland will speak in 11, 12 or 13 months' time. If Government does not listen to them now it will get its answer in 11, 12 or 13 months' time. The people are crying out for help and for solutions. When we joined Europe it was a community. Now, Europe is engaged in bullying tactics in terms of telling us what, as a nation, we can do. Let us go to Europe and support the Greeks and the Spanish. Let us go there and stand in solidarity in support of communities working together and not allow a few countries to bully us and tell us how to live our lives. The time for that is up. Let us face reality.

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