Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Looking at the euphoric faces of some Government Deputies last week when the announcement was made about the exit from the troika programme on 15 December, I was reminded of Martin Luther King's great speech at the Lincoln Memorial in August 1969, when he said "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!". However, we are not free at last. We are not free and will never be free while this Government endures and while it continues with the appalling and dreadful austerity which began in September 2008 under the Cowen-led Government and continues to this day. Indeed, having been a satrap State for the past three years, we are being permitted to enter a new decade as a dependent economy, firmly under direct economic rule from Brussels and Frankfurt.

Like other Deputies, I am concerned about the lack of information from the Government about the potential terms and conditions that would have been attached to a precautionary credit line and the total lack of clarity on the further invigilation of Ireland in the post-bailout period. The Dutch finance Minister, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, said that Ireland would be subjected to "intensive surveillance" twice a year because under the new two-pack rules, a county exiting a bailout will be subjected to extra surveillance until 75% of money owed is repaid. I note that we got a very quiet backstop from Berlin a number of weeks ago, extending until next February. I also note that John Corrigan of the NTMA has said that we may be able to access the outright monetary transactions, OMT, programme. I welcome this if it proves to be the case. The decision to involve KfW, the German development bank, seems innovative and may result in cheaper interest rates on loans to the Irish SME sector.

However, while there are some positive reports coming in on our situation, we continue to suffer dreadfully because of the events of September 2008. I will probably be supporting this motion because it seems consistent with my position since this horrendous economic austerity descended on us. We are still in desperately uncertain territory, with the socialisation of vast amounts of private debt. Our citizens have suffered deeply and continue to suffer. I have estimated, based on figures from the Department of Finance, that in the past few years €3.7 billion has been taken from the social protection budget and approximately €4 billion from the health budget, and the amount of interest that we are paying to sustain the bank bailout debt is roughly the size of the education budget. The gallant shoulders of our people are continuing to carry the burden, with projected cuts of €2 billion next year and further billions in the years ahead.

It is not a day on which we can feel free or even deeply hopeful. However, I welcome the fact that at least we are getting away from the troika.

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