Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom moladh a thabhairt do na Seanadóirí atá ag úsáid na Gaeilge an tseachtain seo. B'fhéidir go dtabharfaidh said spreagadh do dhaoine eile beagáinín Gaeilge a úsáid sna díospóireachtaí a bheidh againn i rith Seachtain an Gaeilge an tseachtain seo agus an tseachtain seo chugainn.

I would like to commend a theatre production that a number of us saw last night, which is produced between Garter Lane Arts Centre, Everyman Palace and Project Arts Centre. It is "Dreamland" by Jim Nolan, which is a very good production and well worth a visit this week, if people get a chance to see it. It deals with the rise of fascism in the 1930s in Ireland, which is a theme I was discussing in Bilbao over the weekend. I was lucky enough to be invited to a conference there which was to coincide with the visit of the IMF to Bilbao and was focused on the impact of troika economics on a number of states and regions across Europe.

One of the themes that came across from a number of the speakers was the rise of fascism across Europe, which is becoming a very serious problems in places like Greece, Portugal and Spain. The state of their economies and the impact socially of troika programmes was under discussion especially given that in many regions and states the negative impact of what has happened has been very serious. There was a huge protest in Bilbao, with tens of thousands of people on the streets.

It is important for us not to forget that even though we are apparently out of our own bailout programme, bailouts are still happening across Europe and are having a massive negative impact in places like Greece, Portugal, Italy and Spain. We even had speakers from Germany highlighting the difficulties in that country for people in lower income brackets. Now we have the news that the troika is coming back to check our copybooks in the near future. We were told we were out of its grasp, but it is clear now that we will be under its tutelage until 75% of the banking debts are repaid. It is important to have a debate on the impact of troika economics and austerity policies throughout Europe, including their social impact in member states that are still in bailout programmes. Those countries are dealing with serious unemployment and social problems, cutbacks in health services and so on. It would be a useful debate and a reminder that we must not forget our comrades across Europe.