Dáil debates

Tuesday, 24 March 2009

5:00 pm

Photo of Arthur MorganArthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)

We must all be grateful to the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Deputy Smith, for offering us a great insight into the muddled thinking of the Government with his comments last Sunday that savings of €5 billion to €6 billion would be sought in the forthcoming budget. The subsequent "clarification" hardly helped matters. Since the beginning of the month the Government has increased the amount of the projected deficit from €4.5 billion to as much as €6 billion. We must await the March revenue figures which will issue less than a week before the emergency budget to see how much further into the red the Government has dragged the economy.

The economy was brought to this point, not by international factors alone but by the disastrous policies pursued by Fianna Fáil-led Governments for more than a decade. I acknowledge that international factors have had an impact. However, these factors would have been mitigated massively had we had constructive, realistic policies guided and driven by a sensible and conscious Government. It has been claimed no one shouted "Stop". That is not correct. Many did so, my Sinn Féin colleagues and me among them. We pointed out that the property boom was unsustainable and that it was a recipe for disaster for the Government to rely on that bubble for so much of its revenue. This fundamental policy failure lies at the root of the crisis in the public finances.

Last autumn the Government panicked. It rushed into an emergency early budget in October without having a clear picture of what was happening in the economy. It was primarily a public relations exercise in order that the Government could be seen to be doing something. The reality was that the Dáil was in recess for the entire summer. By contrast, Members of the Spanish Government returned to their desks early in order to deal with the deepening economic crisis in their country. The October budget was unnecessary and its rushed nature led to more disastrous decisions. The Government obeyed its conservative reflex and lashed out at public services by imposing cuts in health and education, before imposing a so-called public service pensions levy which is in reality a levy on public service. The Government succeeded in bringing older people, students and organised workers out in numbers not seen on our streets since the anti-Iraq war march of 2003, the hunger strikes of 1980 and 1981 and the tax marches of 1979.

It was inevitable that these mobilisations would be followed by strike action. Sinn Féin supports the decision of trade unions and workers to take part in next Monday's national strike. The blame for industrial unrest lies squarely at the Government's door. We are calling on the Government to engage with trade unions in an effort to avert the action. However, if the strike goes ahead as planned, any disruptions will be the responsibility of the Taoiseach and his Government. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU, called for the national strike in protest against the Government's handling of the economic crisis. The ICTU has published a commendable ten-point plan for national recovery — There is a Better, Fairer Way — which sets out the key elements of its campaign platform.

Since the introduction of the so-called "cheapest bail-out in the world", the Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan, has made one blunder after another in his fundamentally flawed strategy to save the banks. Each time he intervenes, whether through recapitalisation or nationalisation, he tells us that this latest measure will do the job. While all these schemes have poured billions of euro of taxpayers' money into the banks, our beloved senior bankers are getting away with more embezzlement. It is simply incredible that while the Government was in the process of guaranteeing Irish Nationwide Building Society, Mr. Michael Fingleton was collecting a bonus of €1 million. Mr. Fingleton has used Irish Nationwide Building Society for well over 30 years as his own personal bailiwick. Dominating the board of directors in the way that he did, Mr. Fingleton's €1 million bonus——

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