Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Tá áthas orm an deis a fháil cúpla focal a rá ar an ábhar tábhactach seo agus sin cruinniú Chomhairle na hEorpa i mí an Mhárta. Is oth liom a rá go bhfuil sé ag tarlú le déanaí nach bhfuil ráitis den chineál seo á dhéanamh roimh nó i ndiaidh cruinnithe den Chomhairle. Ní maith liom go dtarlódh a leithéid amach anseo.

This has been a time of continued turbulence in Europe. There have been highly dramatic negotiations that have gone to the heart of whether Europe can tackle the economic, social and political crises of the moment. The fact that the Dáil has been kept out of these discussions in recent times is unfortunate and, I suggest, is a consistent policy of the Government in marginalising this democratic Chamber.

This week's summit will not take any dramatic decisions but it is an important meeting none the less. The citizens of this country and of the Union as a whole are waiting on their leaders to show that they can bridge gaps and demonstrate a common resolve. The summit is due to sign off on the latest round of the fiscal oversight procedure. By terming it "the European semester" one could believe that there is a policy of making it as inaccessible as possible for people who are trying to understand what is going on. The documents to be signed-off on contain vital decisions about budgets and growth. Thankfully, there has been some flexibility shown and the rigid and damaging insistence on immediate cuts has been watered down.

Over the coming months we are due to hear more electioneering from the Government with an unprecedented abuse of the Civil Service to formulate what is to be, in effect, Fine Gael's election manifesto. This week, the Government has been engaged in its now usual and still ineffective habit of congratulating itself and claiming to have delivered economic progress. The Taoiseach's article on Monday was a classic of this type. Again, it ignored the reality of a Government which has not delivered recovery but rather delayed a recovery built on the skills of the people and made it as unfair as possible. People would have every right to be confused if they were to take the time to compare the Taoiseach's words on Monday with those of the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, yesterday, when he suddenly went from insisting that existing targets would be hit to demanding greater flexibility in October's budget. His mixed statements about the flexibility won by other countries reinforce the fact that the Government has yet to make any agreed statement about the medium-term fiscal objectives. In fact, the only formal multi-year agreement reached between the Labour Party and Fine Gael has been on the implementation of targets set by the late great Brian Lenihan.

I call on the Taoiseach to speak up at this summit in favour of ending avoidable austerity. Where countries can manage a higher debt to support increased investment they should be encouraged to do so. This is especially true of Germany, where the failure to tackle low demand has much wider implications.

The situation with Greece remains critical. There is no doubt that the Syriza movement took the easy populist line during the election. The party promised that all that was needed was to stand up to foreigners and gave the impression that there were no hard decisions to take. By acting as if it was the only Government in Europe with a mandate, it has caused understandable offence. The new habit of making public attacks on the leaders of other member states serves as divisive, damaging and, at times, insulting. Some of the worst enemies of Greece have been the country's supposed friends, who continue to use hype and empty rhetoric to present anyone who disagrees with Syriza as being heartless and cruel. The failure of the Greek Government to publish plans quickly for what it is willing to do in return for foreign support suggests that it did not undertake a fraction of the preparations for government which it claimed to have done.

Anyway, the fact remains that there needs to be a new policy towards Greece. Greece needs and deserves a credible return to growth which can create jobs and restore the social safety net. The current plans and policies will not do this. It may well be that the Greek Government is unwilling to genuinely reform anything in return for support, or that it makes demands which the democratically-elected Governments of other countries cannot support. However, there is a duty at least to be generous and to recognise that not all of Greece's debts are its own fault.

Ireland has a rather different situation. Someday the Taoiseach and his Ministers might have the honesty to acknowledge that they voted against the measures that delivered the fiscal correction which, he now maintains, saved the country. He might also acknowledge the core strengths of the economy rather than indulge in the nonsense of claiming to have delivered every job that has been created. Throughout the recession our internationally trading sectors continued to do well. Even in the worst years IDA Ireland attracted significant inward investment. These sectors have been the core of this recovery. Ireland has every right to sell itself internationally but the politically-focused message is selling us short. It promotes a short-term political message ahead of one of the long-term strengths of our most important resource, our people. It also undermines the case for full justice for Ireland on banking-related debt.

In Paris in 2012, the Taoiseach said Ireland was a special case because "Ireland was the first and only country which had a European position imposed upon it, in the sense that there wasn't the opportunity if the Government wished to do it their way by burning bondholders". For some reason he is reluctant to repeat it. Over the past few years there has been regular announcements of breakthroughs on the bank-related debt and claims of widely-inflated amounts being saved.

Ireland has received zero in concessions on the special nature of its bank related debt. In fact, it is now the Government's position that it will not seek any retrospective aid. The lengthened maturities and reduced interest rates on much of the debt were the application to Ireland of agreements negotiated by others. As for the promissory notes, those debts have simply been converted to sovereign debt. However, because the Central Bank of Ireland is now selling them to the market at a rate faster than originally announced, much of the saving on the arrangement may be lost.

Ireland's fiscal situation is better than it was but it is not strong. Our domestic economy remains weak and the Government's policy of ignoring critical problems like household debt and implementing regressive budgets has caused real damage. The Taoiseach owes it to the people to explain why he is no longer even asking for any debt relief. One of the principal funding routes for proposals to help Greece is to return to it interest on bonds held by the ECB. If this is done, then Ireland must demand equal treatment.

Developments in Ukraine over recent months will again be considered at the summit. Thankfully, the fighting has receded but it is looking likely that Russia has once again succeeded in creating conflict in a former client state and freezing ade facto partition. Fianna Fáil last week raised the issue of the murder of the Russian opposition leader, Boris Nemtsov. Whatever story the prosecutors come up with, there will be no way of covering up the fact that he and others have been systematically attacked and demonised by the Russian state. Denouncing people in the state-controlled media as traitors and fifth columnists leads directly to them being under threat. Boris Nemtsov himself pointed out how the Russian opposition has been attacked so much by the state, including in show trials, that they are now in effect dissidents.

This week President Putin admitted that he and his Government lied repeatedly during the process of occupying and then annexing Crimea. In doing this, Russia ripped up a recent international treaty whereby it guaranteed not to touch Ukraine's borders if it agreed to give up nuclear weapons. Ukraine gave up the third largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world, yet Russia has shown that it respects no treaties and no laws when it comes to asserting its right to control the destinies of other countries. How are countries to be expected to agree to valuable actions like disarmament if basic agreements can be unilaterally ripped-up?

The House should note that, since we last discussed this matter, Russia has adopted the policy of encroaching on the air and marine space of other countries. This has included neutral countries such as Ireland and we have shown ourselves to be incapable of addressing the problems those incursions present. Behaviour towards Baltic states has been actively threatening, including the kidnapping of an Estonian official. The bullying and neo-imperialist behaviour of Russia is one which we should stand united against. Ireland, as a country which has experienced a hard struggle to win independence and an imposed partition, should appreciate this more than most. The obligation to stand with Ukraine and against aggression is absolute, yet there are those who have tried to stop Russia facing any consequences. They have argued for the need to do nothing and, in effect, to legitimise Russia's actions. The fact the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy actually tabled a plan to normalise working relations with Russia without any roll-back of its partition of Ukraine is, quite frankly, outrageous. Thankfully, the leadership of President Donald Tusk and others has meant that the basic moral duty of the EU towards its threatened members and Ukraine is being upheld.

What there has not yet been a reaction to is the propaganda of the extreme right and left. If we look throughout Europe, we see that the loudest voices against sanctions and for defending Russia are those of the far right and far left. The National Front in France, UKIP in Britain, Jobbik in Hungary and every party in the former communist group in the European Parliament are united in their defence of Russia. The National Front in France has actually taken a large loan from a Kremlin-linked bank to fight regional elections this year. In Greece, there is a position where both the neo-fascist Golden Dawn party and the majority of Syriza oppose any action against Russia for annexing Crimea. At the UN, Israel refused to support a motion condemning the annexation of Ukrainian territory by Russia.

It is a sad fact that there are those here who have followed this collection of extremist groups in refusing to stand against Russia's behaviour. There are significant voices here who have consistently worked to ignore, play down or relativise Russian partition of Ukraine. The propaganda slanders against the Ukrainian people that they were controlled fascists were repeated here in this country. Groups which have no problem demonstrating outside any number of embassies have left Russia's embassy undisturbed. Despite mounting repression on minorities in Crimea and the outlawing of the right to protest against the annexation, still we hear nothing. The argument that Russia should have been allowed to dictate the foreign and security policies of its former imperial subjects is offensive, yet it has been said in this Chamber.

Missing from Sinn Féin's long list of statements of solidarity last weekend was one standing against this partition - so, anti-partition at home but no problem with partition abroad. In fact, they have said that the EU and US are co-responsible for Russia's action. We look forward to Sinn Féin representatives interrupting their fund-raising in the United States to repeat this absurd idea there.

The people of Ukraine freely and repeatedly said they want to live in a European democracy and we have a duty to stand with them. The Taoiseach should use this summit as an opportunity to call for a significant increase in direct aid for Ukraine, and I suggest he should make such a commitment on Ireland's behalf.

The energy issues to be discussed are closely related to the Ukraine. Russia has shown that it will use energy as a geopolitical tool. Europe must diversify supply and it must invest in reducing demand for energy. The energy union should be activated as quickly as possible. It has the potential to reduce our energy bills, which are disproportionately high and causing real hardship for people throughout this country.

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