Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group) | Oireachtas source

The mountain of debt heaped on the backs of Irish people over the past number of years is not our debt and we should not have been burdened with it. We certainly should not have had policies of austerity that were followed by this and the previous Government and which arose because of that debt. I have absolutely no confidence in this Government, particularly in any hope that it will give a fair crack of the whip to ordinary families, the poor and those on low or middle incomes across the State. The suggestion we have recovered our sovereignty is of course nonsense.

The real question is whether exiting the bailout - with or without a credit line - will make one bit of difference to hard-pressed families across the country. We know the answer is "no", as it will not provide one additional discretionary medical card to a sick child or adult, build one extra house for any of the 112,000 families on waiting lists around the country or give a single euro more to schemes such as CLÁR or RAPID that help disadvantaged and deprived areas across the country. It will not restore the telephone allowance for elderly people who depend on personal alarms and it will not restore a single euro of the cuts to child benefit, despite the Labour Party giving absolute commitments not to touch it. It will not even restore the very cynical and mean cut to the bereavement grant which came in the last budget. It will not stop the unfair local property tax, which the current Taoiseach has in the past stated would be wrong, unfair and unjust. It will not stop the water charges being introduced next year.

Next year we will face another austerity budget with at least €2 billion in increased taxes and cuts, and we know the current Government's policy will continue. It is the same policy as that of the last Government, and we have had much of the pot calling the kettle black this evening. The current and previous Government have been committed to a policy whereby ordinary people, including the poor and low and middle income families, will be made to pay for a recession they had absolutely no hand, act or part in creating.

What will future policy look like? The fiscal compact treaty will bring about more austerity and not less and a reduction of the debt to 60% of GDP will mean that over the next 20 years, there will be cuts in the budgets of anything from €3 billion to €4.5 billion each year. The policy currently pursued by the Government means there is little or no growth, and expectations have been downgraded again as late as today. Thousands of our young people will continue to leave these shores when they are pushed from the country by reducing the rate of jobseeker's allowance and ensuring they do not get a fair crack of the whip. The elephant in the room is the debt and it is not ours so it should not be heaped on the backs of the Irish people.

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