Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein)

Cuirim céad fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit agus fearaim fáilte roimh an Tánaiste, a bhí anseo roimhe. Is breá an rud an Tánaiste a fheiceáil sa Teach. Tá súil agam go gcuirfidh sé focal i gcluais an Taoisigh agus an bealach anall chomh fada leis an Teach a thaispeáint dó. Táimid ag súil len é a fheiceáil. Cuirim fáilte, chomh maith, roimh a Soilse, Ambasadóir na Cróite. I apologise in advance for my terrible Croatian: dobro došli, Ambassador Ognjanovac. It is very good to see you here. Sinn Féin welcomes the accession of Croatia to the European Unin, with a word of caution that we should be careful what we wish for. Many of the promises we were given were not fulfilled. However, that is the subject of another day's debate.

Sinn Féin, although not happy with the way the Government has gone about bringing forward this legislation, will support it because it supports some elements of it. Lumping together measures aimed at the facilitation of a financial mechanism, the accession of Croatia, a change in the number of MEPS and the approval of the Irish protocols in the Lisbon treaty is bad practice, as it does not allow each aspect to be considered and voted on separately. Nevertheless, as Sinn Féin does support each aspect we can therefore support the Bill. On the most important element of the change in Article 136 to allow for the creation of a stability mechanism, Sinn Féin supports the amendment as we agree with the concept of a mechanism which countries in need can access. We are, however, opposed to the ESM in its current form and will vote against the ESM Bill. We have already placed on record our reasons for not supporting the ESM and explained what our preferred way of doing things would be.

We have no objection to ratifying the membership of Croatia. The Croatian people have voted to join the EU and we respect their decision. They meet the criteria as laid out in law and we welcome them into the Union. I take this opportunity to put on record Sinn Féin's view that Croatian workers should not be discriminated against in the EU and should be allowed to go where they wish as other EU citizens do.

After the first rejection of the Lisbon treaty, Sinn Féin warned that vague promises or protocols would be added to help the Lisbon treaty to pass on the second attempt. We were right and it is those protocols that we are now accepting. They are largely meaningless and do not change anything in EU law or the law of this State. For that reason we do not oppose them. The change to the number of MEPs has been agreed and is a technical issue to which we do not object. It is our hope that by ratifying this Bill the EU is empowering itself to construct a genuine instrument of solidarity that can provide stability for the euro in the medium term. Unfortunately, that does not seem to be on the cards at the moment. Our support is based on the hope that the tide which is turning against austerity will reach the shore, and that changes to or a replacement for the flawed ESM can be facilitated through the support of the Oireachtas today.

One of my outstanding memories of the Lisbon treaty was the posters that said "Vote Yes For Jobs". I wonder where all those jobs have gone that we were promised during the Lisbon treaty. I was lucky to be in Lisbon a week and a half ago. It is a beautiful city which has two sides to it at the moment. It has a beautiful side with much history, fantastic architecture, great buildings and wonderful people. However, there is also a very poor side. I was taken aback by the amount of people sleeping on the streets. I call it sleeping on the streets as opposed to sleeping rough because there were obviously many people who were well educated who were finding life difficult and had no other option but to sleep on the street. I was there at the invitation of the GUE/NGL grouping in the European Parliament to speak at a rally. It was an interesting occasion with MEPs from France, Germany, Portugal, Ireland and representatives from our sister parties in Greece. The story being told was of the effect of austerity in all of those countries, how it is affecting people on a human level and how the austerity programme that has been introduced is not helping people. We might find that we are the best children in the class when it comes to following the rules but the human cost of austerity in this State is one we should not pay in order for European banks to get away scot free from piling their debts onto the citizens of this State.

The visit was also important in that there was a huge rally in Lisbon on the Saturday organised by the trade unions. It was very different to the type of rallies we have in this country. No political speeches were allowed. That might be something on which we should legislate in this country. I am sure people would welcome that measure if it were introduced in a referendum. There were 30,000 people at the rally from all the various unions making their protest against the cuts that have been introduced. It is important to keep that in mind.

Cé nach n-aontaímid leis an tslí go bhfuil an Bille á thabhairt isteach, go bhfuil rudaí éagsúla fite-fuaite ann, ba bhreá linn go mbeimis in ann rudaí a phlé de réir a chéile. Cuirimid fáilte roimh mhuintir na Cróite isteach sa Seanad go háirithe agus isteach san Aontas Eorpach. Guímid gach ráth orthu.