Martin Ferris (Kerry North, Sinn Fein)

Like everyone else in this House, I am shocked by the latest unemployment figures. All of us know from our own constituencies that the position had significantly worsened over the past month or so. That was indicated by the 70% increase in unemployment in Kerry between December 2007 and December 2008, and the statistics, when broken down locally, will show yet another steep increase. As I have said previously, this will further worsen all the problems associated with large scale unemployment. We have witnessed the return of emigration, which will have an extremely negative impact on the fabric of local communities and exacerbate the problems associated with rural decline and isolation.

For those who remain there are the daily struggles of attempting to cope with making ends meet on social welfare payments. That will contribute to a marked increase in poverty with all the consequences that will have on the State in terms of increased demands on the health service and other public provisions. As others have said, the impact of unemployment levels on State expenditure will mean a significant additional demand on public provisions to the extent that they will probably negate any of the savings claimed to have been made by the measures announced in the House on Tuesday.

It should also be borne in mind that while there is a temptation on the part of the Government to make even further short-term savings by, for example, shedding jobs in Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann, the cost of supporting the workers made redundant will vastly outweigh any savings made through cutting down on the relatively minor losses made by the public transport providers who are obliged to provide services, for example, to the more remote rural parts of the country, which are unlikely to make a profit. However, that is why services such as transport and others were taken into public ownership in the first place. Private enterprise was either unwilling or unable to run them efficiently to provide an adequate service or to make a profit from doing so.

That is worth bearing in mind at a time many people are seeking to blame the public sector for all the ills in this country. Many of those leading that call did very well out of the Celtic tiger. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, little of the driving force within the economy was led by indigenous enterprise, other than the construction sector. We remained, and continue to remain, overwhelmingly dependent on inward foreign investment in what there is of a manufacturing base and in key areas such as information technology.

Many people were happy to invest in the services sector in which wages have remained low, even with the introduction of the minimum wage, and working conditions and workers' rights have been undermined, yet those who made large profits in this sector, who were happy to charge consumers more than they would have had to pay in other countries, are the first to demand that those who gained least over the period of economic prosperity should pay for it. The same applies to those who were happy to push the price of housing and rents well above any other increases in the cost of living and certainly above any increases in wages.

That is why there is understandable resentment and anger among people who have lost their jobs and people within the public service who are being asked to take a substantial pay cut, not to mention the perception that this Government has bailed out the banks and left those responsible walk away from the mess they created. Some of those involved were shown to have engaged in practices, which, at the very least, were underhand and unethical, and which, it would appear, were designed to allow them and their friends to continue to gamble on the property and other markets. Not many gamblers have their tab picked up by the State.

The Taoiseach yesterday, in defending the pay cuts imposed on public servants, said he would like bank executives take a 25% pay cut. Surely, where the State has, in effect, guaranteed the banks' losses and nationalised the debt they built up through their irresponsibility, the Taoiseach can do more than suggest what those banks, which are effectively owned by the State, should do. He is not suggesting that nurses and teachers and postal workers should take a pay cut or there should be no increases in pay for any workers or that there will be job losses in places like Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann. He is imposing these measures and, in the process, ignoring the structures of social partnership, which he and IBEC were happy to use when it suited them to effectively dampen the wage increases in both the public and private sectors during the boom. Now that the same people have contributed to the current mess, the unions and those they represent are simply ignored and told what to do. The contrast between that and the manner in which the property speculators and the gambling bankers were saved could not be any starker.

There is a great deal of discussion currently about responsibility and everyone taking their share of the burden. That is all very well but if that is to be seen to be more than empty rhetoric, then it must be seen to be put into effect. However, where people can contrast the treatment of the bankers with that of public sector workers, they will fail to be convinced. Many people this week are asking themselves why they should take the hit when others are being allowed to walk away. The bankers and developers and cowardly political practices are responsible for the mess we are in. The bankers, through irresponsible lending to facilitate developers to increase the cost of land way beyond its value, have contributed to many young people who bought homes facing negative equity.

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