Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

Nobody in this House would deny that we are at the beginning of what may be the worst economic crisis in living memory. All around the country tonight, around kitchen tables, people are wondering just how they are going to get through it. How will they manage with less take-home pay, but the same bills? How will they pay their mortgage, and what will happen if they cannot? How will they keep their business afloat? How will their retirement be now that the pension they saved so long for has evaporated along with trust in the banks?

How will they cope now that they have lost their job? In January alone, 36,500 people found themselves asking this question for the first time. These are people who just 12 months ago had good jobs, reasonable incomes and hope for the future but now find themselves queuing along the street at the dole office. They are bewildered by their first ever experience of seeking assistance from the State, embarrassed and humiliated by their new fate.

My thoughts tonight, first, are with the 140,000 people who have lost their jobs over the past year. Those people have seen the doors close in SR Technics, Ericsson, Waterford Crystal and Dell, to name but a few. There are as many untold stories about businesses closing down, redundancies and reduced hours as there are new people signing onto the live register. I say this because now is the time for solidarity. Now is the time to recognise that what happens to our neighbours, our colleagues and our fellow citizens matters to each and every one of us.

There has been, since the start of the economic downturn, a deliberate attempt drive a wedge between those who work in the private sector and those who work in the public sector.

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