John Gilroy (Labour)

I would like to be the only Member present to discuss the relevant section. It is difficult to see how one could make an argument for voting against the section if we all share the belief that we must access funding from some source. The only likely source of funding available to us at present is the European Stability Mechanism. If we vote against the section, we are stating we do not want the ESM. It strikes me as particularly ironic - I touched on this issue on Second Stage yesterday - that those who oppose the section ask the reason we should put our money at risk by contributing to the fund. This is precisely the same argument as is used by the more belligerent members of the German commentariat who ask the reason Germany should contribute to the mechanism from which Ireland is drawing funds. We cannot argue, on the one hand, that we do not want to contribute €1.27 billion to the ESM-----