Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

-----yet that is what is being done. It is a disgrace and is only being done because the Government is doffing the cap yet again to the European Commission officials, who made it clear in the bilateral talks with the Irish delegation on 6 April that they expected Dublin to make a submission on time. The Government said, "That is grand, master. No problem. We will do that".

The problem is that institutionalised neoliberalism and budgetary surveillance by unelected bureaucrats in the European Commission were enshrined in the six-pack agreement. Deputy Wallace is correct about that. The six-pack is one of the reasons offered as to why we cannot borrow to build social housing, in that doing so would push us over the 3% central government deficit-GDP figure. It is a nonsense and an insult to democracy. In a recent article, Professor John Weeks of the University of London discussed the authoritarianism of the EU and the six-pack. He stated:

It asserts the power of the unelected European Commission, as the executive of the European Union, to monitor ("detect") whether the public budget of an elected member government conforms to EU fiscal rules. If it does not, the Commission claims the power to prevent the implementation of that budget, then to specify the changes ("corrections") required.

Is this the EU democracy that the Tánaiste told the Dáil was so wonderful last week? We are signing up to enforced perpetual economic stagnation in Europe. Economies that could previously use their budgets to stimulate public expenditure and growth are being hamstrung. According to Professor Weeks, who put it much better than me, we are forcing "member governments to apply policies analogous to the practice 200 years ago of bloodletting to restore health to the ill". I am not prepared to let the blood of the Irish people any longer, but a Government with no mandate believes that it can.

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