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

 

1:00 pm

Photo of John GilroyJohn Gilroy (Labour)

I welcome the Minister of State back to the House. I had not intended contributing but I will do so now. Before my colleague and friend, Senator Ó Clochartaigh, leaves the Chamber, I want to tell him that I am anxious to engage with some of the points he made. I have struggled to find meaning in much of what he said. I am not opposed to or in favour of what he said, I just found that some of his points lacked meaning. I will give a few examples. Sinn Féin, in its recent public utterances, is for good quality ground water but against septic tank inspections. It is for expansion of local services by county councillors but against financing them. It is against increases in the marginal rate of VAT and increases in duty, including those on alcohol and cigarettes. It is against paying its debts but in favour of a unilateral default. It is against any kind of a cutback but in favour of expanding those services. It is for massive investment and against every treaty, and it is for taxing rich people. Its members say they are living in the real world but their world is not the world I know.

Senator Ó Clochartaigh acknowledged that the State does not have the money to stimulate growth. We need to borrow money to do so. Who will give it to us? Has Sinn Féin another, unspoken reason for its opposition to the treaty? Perhaps it is because it is against fiscal responsibility. Perhaps this treaty would preclude Sinn Féin's policy of massive Government borrowing to fund massive Government overruns when, God help us, it gets into government. Perhaps fiscal responsibility is something of which the speakers in Sinn Féin are not in favour. Those are my points in response to what Senator Ó Clochartaigh said.

I spoke yesterday about the language being used around the treaty. My colleague, Senator Bacik, said yesterday that when people name the treaty, they portray or demonstrate their position on it. I was taken aback yesterday and disappointed to hear an RTE journalist on RTE radio's "News At One" refer to the treaty as an austerity treaty, not in quoting someone else but in referring to the treaty as that. It is inappropriate for our national broadcaster to use value judgments in this respect. Reporting by RTE, our national broadcaster, in its news programmes should be value free.

I am disappointed also with some sectors of the trade union movement in recommending a "No" vote in the referendum on the treaty. One union has demanded a €10 billion stimulus in return for a recommendation of a "Yes" vote. Where do the people making such statements think we will get the money to make such an investment? We all want to invest, provide a stimulus and see everyone return to work. There is nobody more anxious about that than the Government, but we have to live in the real world. We have to ask where we will get €10 billion to invest. We will be in the programme for another 12 months and we hope to return to the markets next year. The stability treaty, if passed and I hope it will be, will go some way towards creating conditions for confidence and stability to return to the markets at a reasonable rate. These are some of the points that I wished to make and I ask that they be honestly addressed. Much of the public comment I hear being put forward on the treaty is nice mom and apple pie argument, but when one examines it, it seems a bit vacuous and hollow.

Senator Barrett referred to section 8 and access to the ESM in the event of the treaty being passed or not. That section is part of the treaty. If we ratify the treaty, we will become part of it and if we do not, we will not. The preamble to the treaty suggests we have no access to the ESM. That is a matter of legal opinion and I sought one on it. It is a question of logic as well as one of legal opinion.

There is much more I could say and we will probably debate the treaty much more. I hope we will do so robustly, on the door steps and in public halls in towns throughout the country as well as in the Chamber. I look forward to that.

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