Eugene Regan (Fine Gael)

We cannot expect bailouts from Brussels of the scale that has just happened - €750 billion in the last week - without playing our part in co-operating in the co-ordination of budgetary policy. The NTMA could not go into the market to borrow in the last number of weeks because of what had happened in the financial markets. The support we have received from the ECB over the last two years has kept our banks afloat. We can now go back into the market because of that bailout, so I welcome stronger surveillance and co-operation by the European Commission and other member states on budgetary policy.

Senator Harris is right. The European Union is a Fine Gael project. Fine Gael is sound on Europe and supports European integration. That means it is best placed to ask questions. We do not need to unreservedly swallow whatever comes from Brussels. A French Government spokesperson said parliament remained sovereign when it came to budgetary and fiscal decisions, but that it also supported the idea of better co-ordination in fiscal and budgetary matters. That is what is provided for in the treaty. There are procedures in place to penalise member states with excessive budgetary deficits. This is very important and to be welcomed. It would have been very interesting if other member states and the European Commission had reviewed some of our budget proposals on benchmarking and decentralisation. When we see what the European Union has done in correcting the worst features of the NAMA project in its decision in February, we can see the benefits of European Union intervention in and surveillance of economic and budgetary policy here.