Kathryn Reilly (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It was called the austerity treaty because of the flawed policies contained therein. The policies were flawed when pursued by the previous Government and are also flawed now. They were flawed when Angela Merkel pushed them and when Barroso supported them. Even the IMF is coming around to the view that the policies are flawed.

As other contributors have mentioned, the core function of the Bill is to put the treaty into domestic legislation and enforce the rules arising from the treaty's ratification. I do not wish to go into too much detail on the measures contained in the Bill, but we did warn during the treaty campaign that the structural deficit rule would mean greater levels of austerity. We said the structural deficit rule could mean further adjustments of up to ¤6 billion from 2015.