Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

It is very instructive to contrast the approach of the caretaker Government to a debate on water charges with its approach to the stability programme update. Obviously, we had to drag a debate out of the Government and only got it when a deal on water was done in a backroom. On the stability programme, the Government went to the European Commission and said we do not really have a Government and that maybe we cannot produce the stability programme update. The Commission said it wanted the stability programme update by the end of the month. The Government then said that it would produce a document at 10 o'clock one night and that the next day it would have a discussion in the Dáil so it could tick the box and say it was discussed in the national Parliament. It shows the way that Europe operates and the power of the undemocratic, unelected European Commission that the Government simply goes along with it.

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