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

I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute briefly to this important discussion on our spring economic statement for 2015. Of course, it is extremely clear that the Government is gearing up for a general election and apparently hoping that the Irish public have very short memories. Let me start by saying that I welcome a process of regular economic and fiscal debate in the Oireachtas. For many years on the public accounts committee and finance committees I called for a move towards the Dutch and other EU models of full citizen and parliamentary consultation and discussion over each fiscal year on the choices and possible tax and spending decisions for each annual budget. In that context, the idea of a spring economic statement and national economic dialogue are welcome in principle as moves to democratise the budgetary cycle and process.

Tuesday's statements by the Ministers, Deputies Noonan and Howlin, were a great opportunity to signpost key policies to address the ongoing suffering and near despair caused to so many Irish citizens and households by the relentless policy of austerity since autumn 2008. On the Order of Business I identified one of those areas of total despair this morning regarding our homeless families. Sadly, both Ministers' statements, as I wrote on Tuesday, are "devoid of content" and do nothing to lay out a new approach on the key elements of our economy and society. The full spring statement and draft stability programme documents comprise together simply a history of economic austerity and a projection for its essential continuance to 2020. It remains incredibly sad that the Labour Party has seemingly completely tied its fortunes to Fine Gael in the economic planning to 2020. The failure of both Ministers to chart a new way forward is another clear sign that this Government can have no hope of being re-elected.

From the Minister, Deputy Noonan, we learned that a "fiscal space" of €1.2 billion to €1.5 billion has been found courtesy of Mr. Jean-Claude Juncker of "Luxembourg Leaks" fame to provide tax reductions and investment in public services and that the fiscal space will be split 50:50 between tax cuts and expenditure increases in budget 2016. The €600 million to €750 million projected increases for public current expenditure in 2016 represent little more than 1% of gross voted current expenditure and even less of gross current expenditure according to a table in the stability programme update. As there is a fiscal straitjacket imposed on Ireland by the EU six pack and two pack fiscal rules, the outlook in the stability programme projections down to 2020 are equally bleak. Of course, we are assured by the Minister that the annual debt ratio reduction of one twentieth of the difference between the overall level of national debt and the 60% of GDP threshold will be painless because "growth will do the heavy lifting". There was a mistake in the Minister's speech in that respect. The continuing total adherence of Fine Gael and Labour in following Fianna Fáil's betrayal to brutal and unyielding austerity means that major needs of our people now in housing, health and education will go unmet and that new humane and dynamic programmes will not be countenanced by this outgoing conservative Government.

The smug self-congratulating tone of these statements echo the comments of the Taoiseach and the Minister, Deputy Noonan, with respect to the Greek struggle under Syriza, led by Mr. Tsipras and Mr. Varoufakis, to alleviate the colossal debt burden imposed on Greece by its EU and other creditors. Ireland's debt burden is in the same league as Greece and will remain so under the type of lethargic bookkeeping prescribed for us by the Ministers, Deputies Noonan and Howlin. An earlier Greek Government did Ireland an immense favour by lowering the interest rate on part of the troika debt, which also greatly benefitted us. Recently, the Minister, Deputy Noonan, gave me comparative figures for Greek and Irish national debts in terms of gross national product, GNP, or gross national income, GNI, as overall totals per capita. The Minister reported that "at the end of 2013, the general government debt per capitafigures were €46,950 for Ireland and €28,848 for Greece while the comparable gross national income per capitafigures were €32,391 and €16,486 for Ireland and Greece respectively. These equate to a debt to GNI percentage of almost 145% for Ireland and 175% for Greece". Clearly this comparison demonstrates that there remains a shocking burden of debt also on the Irish nation. In the forthcoming general election, the Government's failure to follow up on the 2011 election promises and the 2012 EU commitment will be a huge reason for its demise.

Both ministerial speeches congratulate each other and the Government on the levels of employment and perceived fall in unemployment. In reality, employment levels have still not reached the pre-crash total of 2.1 million and a huge cohort of workers, approaching 400,000, are part-time, with tens of thousands underemployed with poor wages and conditions and little or no security. The Tánaiste yesterday announced that the number of persons unemployed now stands at 353,000. The headline unemployment rate would be at Greek or Spanish levels if the five full Aviva stadiums of young Irish emigrants had not fled the Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour austerity behemoth since 2009. The Ministers, Deputies Howlin and Noonan, referred to the end of emigration and indicated that young people are now returning to our shores because of our recovering economy. I wonder are they aware of the fact that it took a whole 12 minutes for the almost 4,000 international experience Canada working holiday permits to be snapped up this year as opposed to the seven minutes it took for them to go last year.

It was especially disappointing that the Minister, Deputy Howlin, cannot give us the details of a new capital programme until June.

The country needs radical investment in infrastructure, including housing, health, education, public transport and roads, water and sewerage, and coastal defences. The savage cuts in capital investment since 2011 have been most disastrous for social housing. The complete disregard shown towards citizens in need of social housing has been the main driving factor in forcing hundreds of families, including 911 children, into emergency homeless accommodation in the Dublin region alone. The most recent figures from the Dublin Region Homeless Executive, DRHE, revealed there were 411 families in emergency accommodation, 251 of which were headed by single parents and 160 by couples. This means the total of number of adults and children in family emergency accommodation stood at 1,482.

My office is in regular contact with the central placement service of Dublin City Council and Dublin Region Homeless Executive to make representations on behalf of many Dublin Bay North constituents experiencing housing and homelessness issues. As I informed the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Alex White, figures provided to my office show that on any given day between 60 and 80 families are unable to access emergency housing, yet the statements of the Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform did not contain one word about this emergency.

House prices have increased this year by 16.8% compared to last year. Coupled with new mortgage rules for first-time buyers, these rising prices mean there will be no affordable homes for first-time buyers, in any case not in the capital and other larger cities. I repeat my earlier question and ask the Minister to explain the reason the Government has not employed financial emergency measures in the public interest legislation to address social housing and rent regulation.

The constraints of the budgetary envelopes implicit in ministerial statements mean that serious austerity continues in our vital health and education services. The health service is failing dramatically, with lengthy waiting lists to see consultants and for diagnostic procedures and treatments. Recruitment to the health service is in crisis and accident and emergency departments continue to be overcrowded and underresourced, while the Minister frequently gives the impression of being an innocent bystander. The additional €65 million in hospital funding announced this spring is welcome, as is news that general practitioner care will be free for children aged under six years and those aged more than 70 years. Nevertheless, a large number of significant shortcomings persist in the health service, including in disability services for which funding has been cut to the bone.

The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, trumpeted the fact that under this Fine Gael and Labour Party coalition, 150 schools had been built and 1,700 new full-time teachers had been employed. However, the figures he provided on demographic change show that at least 3,500 more primary and secondary school teachers will be required by 2020. The Irish National Teacher Organisation's April-May newsletter, which Deputies received recently, highlighted that more than 500,000 primary school pupils are attending what INTO describes as the "most overcrowded classes in the eurozone", with 76% of children in classes above the EU average, 24% of classes made up of 30 or more students and 66% of classes having between 20 and 29 pupils.

The most shameful aspect of the Government's performance is the ruthless cuts it has made to the means of the most vulnerable citizens who depend mainly on social welfare assistance and benefits. Those in receipt of social welfare payments have endured cuts to child benefit, lone parent's payment, carer's allowance and respite care grants, whereas developers, bankers and the elite have had debts written off and bonuses and contracts awarded to them. At least one quarter of the population hovers slightly above or below normative measures of poverty in society.

I was not surprised by this week's spring economic statement as it was, unfortunately, another example of a conservative Fine Gael Party Government with no vision, backbone or empathy that is backed by a Labour Party which, unfortunately for the Deputies concerned and their local organisations, is facing annihilation in the forthcoming election for turning its backs on the very people who voted it into government.

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