Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

Ms Callan knows the domestic economic is being eviscerated by the disastrous austerity policy and the bailout of European bankers, speculators and the like. Small enterprises and self-employed people, along with workers, are its foremost victims. It puzzles me why her organisation continually pushes a policy that will further eviscerate the domestic economy. In her submission, for example, she shows herself to be in favour of the impoverishment of young people who cannot find jobs. For people under 25, she proposes a weekly dole of €55. She complains that social welfare benefits are too high. What does she want? Does she want a slave population that will work for nothing for her members, or for employers generally? Is that the policy of her organisation?

She has called, again and again, for a property tax and a water tax on ordinary householders. Here, she is at one with the Government which speaks in terms of broadening the tax base, as a cover-up for a grab for hundreds of euro more that many people simply cannot afford, as if there was a pot of gold hidden under every house that can be reached into to pay this tax.

She recommends a tax of €400 which can go from that up to €1,000. With regard to water, the ESRI and other agencies want a combined tax of €1,300 per annum, which will mean new taxes on top of ordinary people. This will cut down people's ability to buy the services of Ms Callan's people. There is a fundamental contradiction in her position.