Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I extend my sympathy to the family of Austin Currie, including Senator Emer Currie. I also extend my sympathy to his party colleagues and wide circle of friends. He was a distinguished human rights campaigner, co-founder of the SDLP and a former member of this House from 1989 to 2002, serving as Minister of State with responsibility for children from 1994 to 1997. Prior to his election to this House, he was elected as a Nationalist Party MP to the Northern Parliament at Stormont, representing the constituency of East Tyrone from 1964 to 1972, until that body was abolished, and direct rule reintroduced after Bloody Sunday. My family hail from Coalisland, County Tyrone, and his efforts on behalf of constituents there are still remembered to this day.

I will turn to the Bill before the House, the Finance (European Stability Mechanism and Single Resolution Fund) Bill 2021, which ratifies amending agreements to the ESM and the SRF intergovernmental agreement, IGA. As noted, the reform of the ESM treaty, signed in January, is a crucial stepping stone on the path to reinforce economic and monetary union and is a significant accompaniment to our efforts in supporting economic recovery. It will help to boost confidence in the euro area's ability to quash crises before they escalate. All euro area member states are required to ratify both amending agreements in order to implement the Eurogroup agreement from November 2020, in relation to ESM treaty reform and the introduction of the common backstop to the SRF, two years ahead of schedule.

The Eurogroup agreement addresses a crucial gap in the banking union by empowering the ESM to act as the common backstop to the SRF, from January 2022. In addition, the agreement further develops the ESM's precautionary financial assistance instruments and improves the operational effectiveness of the institution.

As the Minister of State highlighted, euro area member states have committed to completing their respective national ratification procedures by the end of 2021 to enable the amending agreements to the ESM treaty and the SRF intergovernmental agreement to enter into force at the beginning of next year. It is a largely technical amendment and many of the changes and reforms are welcome, moving from a situation where states that need to access ESM support agree to a memorandum of understanding to a state-prepared proposal.

I note some Members of this House dismiss the legislation as having no impact on Ireland. This misses the point. The European project is about more than one state, it is about EU solidarity and all of us working together with other EU states to make the Union stronger. The Bill strengthens the stability of the eurozone and ultimately the EU. This stability underpins the Irish economic model and ultimately Irish jobs, so we can see it has a critical impact on Ireland and our people. I hope Members from across the House will support the Bill. I welcome that the last few Members spoke in favour of it. I hope there will be full support for the Bill across the House and that when it comes to the final Stages, Members will see fit to vote for it and we will see unanimous support for the Bill.

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