Seanad debates

Tuesday, 24 April 2012

Thirtieth Amendment of the Constitution (Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union) Bill 2012: Committee and Remaining Stages

 

We all accept we must reduce the deficit and there must be an element of fiscal discipline. We are going from an extreme where those in Europe argue there was much reckless borrowing but the reckless borrowing in Ireland was not done by the State or the taxpayers but by bondholders, banks and people lending to the banks. Those banks in turn loaned money to developers who were speculating on the construction sector, and that is where there was recklessness. This treaty does not deal with such issues, such as banking regulation. We are not getting the real solutions to the problems in the Irish economy, which is part of the dilemma and why many people will vote against this treaty. We are simply locking ourselves into more fiscal discipline rules.

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