Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

Will it ever dawn on the Tánaiste that the Government's programme of savage austerity, far from creating jobs and recovery, will plunge our society into ever deeper economic crisis? Is this not clear to the Tánaiste given the shortfall of €383 million in VAT to date reflecting a stagnation in retail sales and services and as a result of the savage austerity that the Government continues to impose on ordinary people while, at the same time continuing to transfer billions of euro in resources to banks, bondholders and assorted speculators? Is it not clear to the Tánaiste that the baleful social effects of austerity, with almost half a million people on the live register, are evident?

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is expecting an unprecedented level of demand for its services from desperate individuals and families this Christmas. Should the disaster that is the Greek economy not make the Tánaiste re-think his blind adherence to this policy? Three years ago, the Greek people were promised that if they accepted the savage programme of cuts they would be on the way to recovery by now. Instead, they have been plunged into greater misery and more crises. Will the Tánaiste explain the point of the Irish Labour Party given that it brings to the debate on the current crisis absolutely nothing different in the slightest from Merkel, Sarkozy and all the high priests and hawks of right wing, neoliberal capitalism?

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