Call for Dáil to debate issues on eurozone membership

THE Dáil should take ownership of budgetary decisions and issues surrounding eurozone membership, according to Fine Gael.

Finance spokesman Richard Bruton said the Dáil was playing second fiddle while decisions were being made by national leaders without debate.

He was speaking in last night’s debate on the Euro Loan Facility Bill 2010, which will allow the Government to make a €1.3 billion loan to Greece as its contribution to a €110bn bailout for the Mediterranean state. The first tranche of bilateral loans had already been handed over to Greece as the debate on the issue took place in the Dáil. And Fine Gael said the Irish parliament should have had a chance to discuss the bailout deal before the Taoiseach signed up to it in Europe. Mr Bruton warned against the EU’s “prior fixing of the Irish budgetary stance and prior penalty setting to ensure compliance with this ahead of a debate in Ireland,” which he said was not “a healthy way to confront our problems”.