Martin Ferris (Kerry North, Sinn Fein)

I come from a county that has been decimated by the policies - or lack thereof - adopted by successive Governments. We used to have a very viable fishing sector. The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Deputy Brendan Smith, made a vague reference to it. This sector has been decimated. Two years ago, with the stroke of a pen, the current Minister for Transport, Deputy Dempsey, got rid of one part of the fishing industry and those who worked in it. I refer to drift-net salmon fishermen. The livelihoods of people living in Dingle, Brandon, the Magharee Islands, Fenit and other places on that part of the coast have been destroyed.

At present, some 80 15-metre trawlers are tied up in port because either their owners cannot afford to have surveys carried out in order to ensure that their vessels meet compliance requirements or they cannot get surveyors to carry out the work. Again, this is another instance of the Government's lack of flexibility. As a consequence, a total of 400 people have been obliged to go on the live register.

The current rate of unemployment in County Kerry is 26%, the second highest figure in the State. There has been no investment in the country or in a proper infrastructure for it. At present, Michael O'Leary is blackmailing the Government in respect of Kerry Airport and his company's service to and from the county. Mr. O'Leary and his ilk are able to engage in such behaviour while poor, unfortunate people who are trying to get a day's work in order to supplement the money they receive on the dole are being persecuted and hounded by departmental officials. The rich and the powerful are able to get away with what they are doing.

Apart from the economic and financial issues we have been discussing during this debate, we must also consider the moral and ethical aspects of the situation. As Deputy Ó Caoláin inquired, who will benefit from the misery that is proposed to be inflicted on people? The Deputy read the names of some of the bondholders into the record. Many people were struck by that fact and by the names of some of the companies which appear on the list. There are websites which have published the names of these companies and there are discussion groups relating to this matter on the Internet. However, no national newspaper regards this issue as being of significant importance. Many people who work in the Houses were struck by Deputy Ó Caoláin's reference to the list. The information he provided has revealed to people the identities of those for whom they are being asked to sacrifice themselves and their families.

While most of the bondholders are based in Europe, there are also Irish connections. I have no doubt that some of our fine patriotic and charitable tax exiles have their noses in the trough. More importantly perhaps is the connection between that and the fact that representatives of these people are advising the Government on how best to make the rest of us pay for their mess. Let us consider Peter Sutherland, for example, who has held various high positions in this State and on its behalf abroad. His views are still given a great deal of credence and he was recently widely quoted in claiming that the State has an obligation to protect Anglo Irish Bank bondholders. In addition, Mr. Sutherland has, in a completely disinterested way of course, been advising the Government on how it should deal with the crisis. Among his proposals is the notion that we should sell State companies. I do not doubt that he knows certain chaps who might be interested in buying these companies at a knock-down price.

How many of those who referred favourably to Sir Peter Sutherland's excellent advice also referred to his own possible self-interest and the interest of his friends in respect of this matter? He is, after all, chairman of Goldman Sachs, the asset management section of which is key bondholder in Anglo Irish Bank and which, incidentally, makes profits of more than €13 billion per year. If our priority is to cater for the needs of people such as this, then the description given on one website of Ireland as an "international welfare state for super-rich bankers" is all too accurate.

My party and others have set out the need to use our own resources, initiative and native intelligence to find a way out of the mess in which we currently find ourselves. We can do that through the development of indigenous sectors, such as agrifood and so on, and by providing a stimulus package for the economy rather than beggaring ourselves to pay the debts of failed speculators. To do what I have outlined, we must retain our young, educated people here rather than once again condemning a generation of them to emigration.

The great Sir Peter Sutherland wants none of this. In the event that the surplus of educated young people do not clear out of the country fast enough, he wants there to be fewer of them. Earlier this year he proposed that the National University of Ireland be abolished. Of course he is correct. There will hardly be a need for so many universities if a young person's highest ambition is to get a job building the Olympic stadium in London or serving behind a bar in the Bronx. Perhaps we could replace the universities with a training college for golf caddies and fishing gillies who could service the needs of Sir Peter and the other tax exiles when they drop in for a short holiday.

TG4 is currently broadcasting an excellent series on the signatories of the 1916 Proclamation. I wonder how those men and women would feel if they knew that almost a century after their deaths, and over 100 years since landlordism was officially abolished, that an Irish Government is effectively handing the country over to a new class of absentee landlords complete with their British royal titles, just in case anyone failed to make the connection.

Another of the bondholders is Rothschilds, which was paid €1.4 million in order to advise the Government on how to deal with the banking crisis. One really could not make this up. If I owed Paddy Power a few thousand euro because I lost money on stupid bets on virtual racing, would the company call and ask me how I thought I might place more bets in order to recover my losses? Would it pay me to advise it on how to take more of its money? That is exactly what the Government is doing with the failed gamblers who have destroyed our economy.

Another of the prominent bondholders, BNP Paribas Asset Management, has bought substantial tracts of real estate in this country. That company's self-interest is also obvious but one does not hear it being attacked as a selfish sectional interest in the same way that some people in this House and the media attack the trade unions. Many trade union members within the public and private sectors are forced to claim family income supplement and their wages and overall living standards will again be under threat in the forthcoming budget. That budget will, in large part, be framed in such a way as to protect Sir Peter Sutherland and his friends.

Lest anyone obtain the impression that only Sinn Féin and other alleged economic illiterates are calling for bondholders to take the hit for their own stupidity, Ms Gillian Tett, an editor with the Financial Times, has stated that the Government must renegotiate with the bondholders and ensure that a substantial part of the burden falls upon them. I assure the House that if people were familiar with the facts and were aware of the identities of the Anglo Irish Bank bondholders and their connections with the so-called elite in this State, they would be clamouring for the same. Perhaps that is why the national newspapers do not carry the list of bondholders.

My party has been accused of being opposed to all cuts. That is not the case and our budget submission will make it clear where we would make cuts. One of those areas where we would introduced cuts relates to the higher State service. In the North, my party has led the way there by proposing cuts in salaries for MLAs and higher-paid public servants. There is certainly scope for cuts of that nature here, particularly when one considers that the Taoiseach is the fourth highest paid Head of State in the world. In addition, the Irish Chief Justice earns one and three quarter times the salary of his US counterpart, a Supreme Court judge earns over one and a half times the salary of his American equivalent and a High Court judge earns one and a half times the salary of a US High Court judge. These people have refused to take pay cuts.

Most of the general issues relating to the current crisis have already been well dealt with my party colleagues. We have detailed our opposition to the austerity drive in the EU, which has seen Ireland become a sort of guinea pig for the credibility of Stability and Growth Pact. The Government claims that the overriding priority is reduce the public sector deficit to the Maastricht treaty limit of 3% of GDP by 2014 and that massive cuts to spending will achieve this. Sinn Féin disagrees with this on all counts. We are of the view that taking money out of the economy will lead to a further growth in unemployment and the prevention of growth.

Last year, we were informed that €7 billion in savings would be required whereas now we are informed that €15 billion will be needed. This time next year, the Government will inform us that €20 billion or €25 billion is going to be required. That is because it does not know the exact amount that will be needed. It is a shocking indictment of the Government, its advisers and the relevant top civil servants that an accurate picture cannot be provided. Why is the actual amount being hidden? We were informed that we would be obliged to take a big hit in last year's budget and that the need for further savings would ease off from there on. Now, however, the position is entirely different. As my colleague, Deputy Ó Snodaigh, has said, it is time for this Government to go in order to give the people the chance to put a Government in place which they can trust and in which they can have faith.

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