Caít Keane (Fine Gael)

This is probably one of the most important debates for the country that we will have in this Chamber. Everything hangs and depends on this treaty and I welcome the opportunity to discuss it in the Chamber.

Ireland may be an island but our trade, currency, exports and workforce stretch far beyond our geographical boundaries. This is a small open economy. This is easily said, but to understand the facts we need to recognise that Ireland exports 80% of everything it produces. We also depend on the stability of the euro currency, which we share in common with 16 other eurozone countries. Today, we are dependent on international institutions for funding to pay our everyday costs - to pay for pensions and wages and to keep our hospitals, schools and other public services running. Ireland and the European Union need stability, which is at the core of the new treaty, which strengthens the rules that support the euro and introduces better national budget rules, with improvements in the way euro countries work together and support each other. This is vital for all of the European Union but especially for Ireland. A stable euro will build confidence and help us to recover and generate jobs. The Government does not generate jobs but creates the environment for growth and stability, and that is what this treaty will enable us to ensure we have in this country.

The treaty will give Ireland an insurance policy, ensuring we will have access to money to fund public services, if we have to seek access to funds again. At present, we have to access money from Europe through the IMF but if we need to access further funds, the treaty ensures that this lifeline will be available to us. The Government is determined to return to the financial markets next year to raise money on our own again, like we did previously. We are on target to do this, but we must also recognise that we cannot control world events and the world economy. The markets need to know that there is a backup in the form of the European Stability Mechanism, which we can only access if we ratify the treaty on 31 May. We cannot access it otherwise. There are no two ways about it - that is written in the treaty. There are major benefits for Ireland, but it is also of interest that all European countries have access to the ESM, if they need it and manage their budgets in a responsible way.

A supportive vote for the treaty on 31 May will not change Ireland overnight. It will not immediately eliminate the array of challenges the Government is working to resolve. However, support for the treaty will be an important part of a solution to that problem and a step forward for Ireland, the European Union and the eurozone. I hope reason will prevail, people will see the logic and will not be led astray by false allegations in the debate on the treaty.

From where will the money come if we do not have access to the ESM? That question has not been answered, a point to which Senator Leyden and other speakers referred. It has been ignored by those on the other side. They have said we will have access to the IMF. We can ask the IMF for funds but if we refuse access to the ESM at a lower interest rate, do Senators think it will give us access, of course it will not. Why would it if other European countries have agreed to sign up to the treaty and we have decided to ride our own horse into the unknown abyss. A previous senator quoted Brian Lucey. People who throw out facts off the top of their head without any figures to back them up are irresponsible to say the least.

Insisting that future governments, both here and in the rest of the eurozone, implement a balanced budget as a norm is a major part of the treaty. If we had followed that rule, while it would not have solved all our ills, it would have helped. In terms of the plan to reduce the deficit to under 3% of GDP by 2015, we are already doing that and that will not be affected by the treaty. The Government has already announced its €17 billion infrastructure and capital investment programme and that will not be affected by the treaty. The maximum structural deficit a country could plan to have would be 0.5% of GDP. Each country would have to have a specific target for this agreed with the EU. A question that has been asked is what will happen if we fall on hard times again. It is written into the treaty that a country may deviate from this in "exceptional circumstances" - this is known as the country-specific medium-term objective. There are those who say we will lose out and will hand over all our decision making to Europe, but we will not lose out. It is built into the treaty that there is a country specific medium-term objective. The objective can be changed from time to time to take account of economic circumstances in any country.

Under the current rules all countries must keep their general Government deficit below 60% of GDP. This was brought in under the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 but as we know everybody broke the rules. Under the existing EU rules, excess debt must be reduced by one twentieth per year. That was not done and that had led us to where we are now. A correction mechanism is built into the stability treaty. If countries do not move towards their target to correct the deficit, that may be referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union and the court may impose a fine of 0.1% on those countries.

On the general government deficit, the treaty requires that countries which ratify it support the European Commission when it makes recommendation on how countries should reduce their deficits. However, they do not have to support these proposals if a qualified majority of the euro area countries opposes the Commission's recommendation. Each country has a responsibility to ensure that they do what is in the treaty and if they do not there will be a call-back option.

The real austerity would occur if we vote "No", cut ourselves off from the ESM and then if we were to require funding, we would have to close our deficit by speeding up the progress of adjustment. This is where austerity would hit the Irish people, if we had to speed up our adjustment at a faster pace that we are doing at present.

We often hear it argued that we would not be in this situation if it were not for the banks and that we bailed them out. Much of that is true but such provision is not in the treaty, it is not a part of it and has nothing to do with it. The Minister, Deputy Michael Noonan, and the Government are currently renegotiating the burden on the Irish taxpayers and we want that to continue. We want to ensure a growth package is built into the treaty, and we agree with new French President that there should an addendum to the treaty. The treaty will not be changed because every country has to come back again on it. We agree there must be growth, and the French President was not the first to state this as the Taoiseach has been stating it in Europe for the past two years.

Some people do not recognise that even without bank debts there is still a €13 billion gap between the Government's spending and revenue. Where will we get the money to bridge this gap? Even if we never had a bank that went bust we would still have a gap of €13 billion. This is a serious issue and those on the "No" side must answer these questions. They speak about extraneous issues such as water and household charges. One would be led to believe they were mentioned in the treaty. They have absolutely nothing to do with the treaty. Domestic Governments in power make these decisions and will continue to do so. It is irresponsible of people to put up posters with false information leading astray people who will not read the full treaty as they try to make a very serious decision. Everybody's vote will count. The vote of the person on the street is as important as that of the Taoiseach's, the Tánaiste's or the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan. Everybody should ensure they do the right thing for the country.

We must all ensure that we play our part for the country. Rather than calling for a "No" vote because it is politically opportunist to raise issues such as water rates and household charges I ask people to please consider their future, consider from where the money will come and consider that Ireland must sign up to the treaty to access the ESM rescue fund. It will enhance confidence in the business community if Ireland is a stable place in which to do business. This is the message we want to send to Europe.