Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

People who have lost their jobs are about to lose their homes to the banks which they bailed out as taxpayers. This Government is doing nothing about it. These are the same people who were forced into working under C2s, although those of us who thought it was a bad idea not to pay tax when one was working told them not to do it and that in the long term it would not be good for them. They now face a three-month waiting period to see whether they will receive unemployment assistance. It will be assistance because they do not have any contributions.

Unemployment in Cork is 12%, which is double the national average. At the same time, we have one of the biggest brownfield sites in the country waiting for development. However, this Government has dragged its heels on providing the infrastructure necessary for that to happen. The unemployment figures continue to increase in Cork city and county. In Cork county, we have the highest number of pupils in classes of 27 or more in the country. In the county with the highest class sizes and highest unemployment figures, we have a junior Minister responsible for employment and we have the Minister for Education and Science, and still nothing is going to happen.

This Government intends to bask in the glory of saving the banks. That is it. It was the only positive action that was taken by this Government and its members will bask in the glory of that until it all comes tumbling down around them. People who are unemployed will quickly realise their money is to be used to shore up institutions that have done nothing for this economy and have only lined their own pockets. I was sick of throwing letters into the fire offering my children loans of €20,000 and more. They could have got them. What the banks were doing was obscene. People in this country do not only have mortgages to pay now that they are unemployed. They also have car loans. The repossessions have already started. They have credit card debts. We are more indebted than any other nation in Europe. Yet the only thing the Government can think to do is to bail out the banks.

We will wait and see the details of the bail-out next week. Will there be any payback to the taxpayer? Will we demand of the banks the type of sympathy we have shown to them when it comes to people who cannot pay their mortgages? One householder owed €11,000. I hear there are bankers in this country who earn that in a day. They are so anxious to get their money that they are prepared to make people homeless in the process. We are losing 300 jobs a day. This Government is so fond of telling us about history, but that will be its legacy. The people out there who find themselves unemployed tonight demand better and demand to know what this Government is going to do about it.

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