Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)

Tá sé soiléir anois go bhfuil an cleasaíocht thart agus go bhfuil na gealltanais a thug páirtithe an Rialtais thart ar ocht seachtain ó shin anois sa bhruscar. Tá siad séanta ag an Rialtas seo agus tá an Rialtas ag glacadh leis na téarmaí a foilsíodh inné ó thaobh an airgid atá muid ag fáil ón EU-IMF. Níl a fhios agam ar cheart dom trua a bheith agam don Rialtas agus don Aire, mar is cinnte go bhfuil an Rialtas agus an t-Aire Airgeadais briste ag an IMF agus an EU. Níl aon cheann de na gealltanais a thug an t-Aire, Páirtí Fhine Gael ná Páirtí an Lucht Oibre le feiceáil sa cháipéis a foilsíodh inné. Ní chloiseann muid aon rud i dtaobh na bondholders, i dtaobh fostaíocht a chruthú nó faoi geallúint Fhine Gael 100,000 postanna a chruthú. Ní fheiceann muid an t-athrú suntasach a fógraíodh ocht seachtain ó shin agus Fine Gael ag iarraidh fáil isteach ar an oifig atá acu anois. Tá trua agam do phobal na tíre seo, mar an rud atá soiléir sa phlean seo ná go bhfuil níos mó ciorruithe agus am chrua le bheith ann do ghnáth teaghlaigh agus daoine - daoine atá dífhostaithe, daoine atá ar ioncam íseal nó ar mheán ioncam, daoine atá ag déanamh sár oibre san earnáil phoiblí agus daoine atá ag iarraidh fostaíochta a chruthú. Is iad sin a bheidh thíos leis na cinntí atá déanta agus leis an lagbheart a bhí ar an Rialtas seo lena athrú suntasach a fháil sa socrú seo a bhí de dhíth don tír.

Throughout the general election campaign, Fine Gael and the Labour Party told the electorate they would make renegotiation of the EU-IMF austerity package their No. 1 priority if elected to Government. The Tánaiste famously told an election press conference that after 25 February it would be Labour's way not Frankfurt's way. Since forming the Government, both parties have repeatedly told the House and the public they are making progress on the renegotiation of a deal which would contain significant changes. The wait is now over and it is clear that they have signed, sealed and delivered a package they were hell-bent against just eight weeks ago. The revised EU-IMF programme of financial support for Ireland is virtually identical in letter and spirit to that agreed by Fianna Fáil last year. It is an unrevised programme and the only support it provides is for the failed policies of the bank bailouts and austerity measures imposed by Brian Cowen in the dying days of the last failed Administration.

Is this the change for which the people voted? Is this the promise of a new era of Fine Gael and the Labour Party in Government? This is the pup that was sold to the Irish people. It is an act of political fraud by a Government on a scale unprecedented in history.

The unrevised EU-IMF programme is based on the same failed economic logic as its identical predecessor. We are told the Government deficit will be reduced to 3% of GDP by 2015. When other parties claimed that target could be reached in 2014 we were alone in this Chamber in arguing it was unachievable and I repeat that argument now. Any serious attempt to meet the target will cripple working families, undermine front line services, increase unemployment and add to the growing mountain of public and private debt. With this revised document, the Government has promised to continue the failed policies of the previous Administration, which have already caused the problems I have outlined. Working families have already been crippled and pushed into mortgage arrears. Spending in the domestic economy, which is key to our recovery, has decreased to the point where growth rates are flat or negative. The Government has promised to pursue that failed agenda over the coming four years.

The fact that jobs are only mentioned in a single paragraph on page 14 of this programme of austerity is a measure of how far Fine Gael and the Labour Party have travelled since the general election campaign. The Government's No. 1 priority gets one paragraph out of 41 pages. That reveals the skill of the negotiators we sent to Brussels and Frankfurt and to deal with the IMF. We only have to compare this paragraph with the six pages of detailed policy prescriptions and costings for pouring more of Irish and European taxpayers' money into failed and toxic banks. At least €24 billion, including €10 billion from the National Pensions Reserve Fund, will be poured into these banks. Depending on the outcome of the stress test of Anglo Irish Bank, which will be announced in the coming weeks, we may see further taxpayer money injected into that failed bank. Not only is the Government content to continue honouring the promissory notes signed by the last Government which will inject €3.1 billion into that bank every year for the next ten years, but it is committed to pouring yet more money into an institution that holds no deposits and is of no systemic value to the Irish economy. For the life of me, I do not understand why such a decision is being taken when senior bondholders are receiving full payment. The people who own the bonds in Anglo Irish Bank are probably making money out of them because they were sold on the secondary market at discounts of 40% to 60%, as the Minister for Finance himself pointed out when he sat on this side of the Chamber. They are going to receive a huge lump sum from the Irish taxpayer and we are going to spend additional billions of euro to help them along their way.

If there was one major flaw in this Government's policies since it took power it was the attempt to spin the jobs initiative as a fully resourced jobs budget which would sort out all the big problems. Over the past several weeks, however, it has attempted to condition the Irish public for the damp squib which is likely to be announced on Tuesday. The downgrading of the jobs initiative will, according to the EU-IMF deal, be revenue neutral. There will be no new money or targets and I suspect no new jobs will be created by this so-called initiative. The EU, IMF and ECB are not interested in creating jobs in this State. They want to shore up our failed banking system in order to protect the other banks in Europe and to drive down wage levels and public spending in a vain effort to restore economic competitiveness. This is not a support plan; it is a vicious programme imposing an internal devaluation on the Irish economy. Its commitment to cut public and private sector wage costs will increase poverty and income inequality among working families. It will widen the gap between the wealthy and the working poor. Less income in people's pockets will further depress the economy as consumer spending continues to fall. As we have seen the result is further private sector job losses.

The programme proposes to reform the social welfare system. While slim on the details, it is a coded plan for reducing payments to the most vulnerable in society in order to incentivise them to take jobs that do not exist. It proposes to cut social welfare expenditure even though the unrevised projection on employment is 40,000 fewer out of work than is currently the case. Social welfare expenditure will be reduced even though the programme for Government states that payments rates will not be reduced. We have heard hints that the pressure will come on family income support, rent supplements and other supports required by the most vulnerable in society. That is a sad indication of how far this Government has come.

The objective of widening tax bands in 2011 and 2012 remains in the EU-IMF programme even though the programme for Government specifically states there will be no further widening of bands or reduction of tax credits. This is another U-turn. On whom will that impact? Once again, it will impact hardest on low income earners. The reduction in tax credits and increasing stealth taxes such as property charges and fuel charges will also hurt families and small businesses. Alongside all of this, the plan commits the Fine Gael-Labour Government to widespread cuts in front line public services and the sale of the strategically important State assets of gas, electricity and water, putting short-term financial gain before long-term social and economic gain.

As if all of this was not bad enough, the EU-IMF programme contains a commitment to a fiscal advisory council supported by a fiscal responsibility Bill, the purpose of which is "to safeguard fiscal discipline in the future". This is code for imposing the preferred policy prescriptions of the EU and IMF on future Governments. When the Government parties were in opposition they were, rightly and genuinely, critical of the previous Government, as it walked out of office, signing up to a plan to which the Government is now agreeing. The argued that it was wrong for a Government to tie the hands of a future Government. Incorporating the fiscal responsibility Bill into law will tie the hands of future Governments when the current Government is finally ousted from office. It is wrong. It should not happen and leeway should be given for those who are the people's choice to act in government without having constraints imposed on them in carrying out their fiscal responsibilities or in the choices they make.

Wage cuts, social welfare cuts and tax increases on working families will all push the economy further into recession and do nothing to reduce the deficit or the prohibitive interest rates barring the Government from borrowing on the international markets. How bullish the Minister for Finance was when the review was completed. He announced that interest rates had dropped by 80, or maybe 100, basis points. The actual figure was about 60. They were coming down, but they are going up again. The international markets are screaming that they are. The biggest bondholder in the world is telling us we need to burn senior bonds in the banks.

The Government does not understand the art of negotiation. In negotiation one must play one's hand. We do not have a huge number of cards to play, but we have strong cards. I recommend to the Government, and to whoever else will be dealing with these negotiations, to take a crash course in negotiation over the next couple of days. In the next term, they may be able to come up with something better. We in Sinn Féin will assist the Government in that crash course in negotiation, as we have particular skills in these matters.

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