Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As my colleague, Senator Darragh O'Brien, has indicated, we will be supporting this. There is a view questions whether the Fiscal Compact Treaty was a treaty for austerity into the future. How much of a straitjacket is the Government going to find itself in regarding its priorities? The Minister of State stated that it would facilitate greater structural planning based on core Government priorities. Perhaps he might outline where those priorities will lie. Will they lie in equality, public private partnerships or capital development? It is important that this is spelled out because the people cannot take many more austerity measures and this seems to suggest that the Government is in some sort of straitjacket. I know this is something that has been imposed on Europe, ironically by countries that breached deficit targets and benchmarks during the Celtic tiger years when we were generating budget surpluses. It is a bit rich for those countries to be putting Ireland in a straitjacket at a time when, as the Minister of State knows more than anybody else, we could do with more money to expand our economy and create more jobs.