Dan Boyle (Green Party)

The use of the phrase "our very survival as a State" is part of the problem we have at the moment in political discourse. We need to pause for reflection. Yesterday evening, the website of The Guardian ran a story stating that a decision had already been made that the International Monetary Fund was to make decisions for this country as of today. Much of the information on international wire services pertains to decisions that have supposedly been made or are on the verge of being made. We need a debate in the House on the essence of democracy in this country, how we make decisions, who makes them and on whose behalf are they made. Regardless of the composition of the Government or the policies we independently decide upon and implement, we need to pause and decide whom we want to make those decisions. The last people we want making such decisions are speculators, people in front of computer screens, Cockney wide boys and people whose only concern is making a quick buck on the supposed strength of a currency of which we are a member. This goes beyond the governance of this country and the debate on policy. We are pawns in a war centred on the euro - a situation in which we last found ourselves in 1992 with the then European monetary system. I ask Members, when discussing topics in the House, to hold the debate on those terms.

The Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service will today release a report on macroeconomic policy and effective fiscal economic governance. Those are the terms on which we should be striving to make decisions in the future - strict fiscal rules and the powers of Parliament through the mandate of the people to make the economy secure for the future. I ask that such debates are held in this House immediately and regularly.