Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)

Ní bheidh Sinn Féin ag tabhairt tacaíocht don rún atá os comhair an Tí anocht. In áit sin, cuirfimid ár leasú féin - go scorfar an Dáil agus go gcuirfear an buiséad ar athló - chun tosaigh. Is mian liom an leasú a mholadh anois.

Tá mé iontach bróduil go bhfuil mé anseo mar Teachta Dála i gcuideachta mo chomhghleacaithe, na Teachtaí amháin atá ina bhfíor Freasúra pholaitiúla i dTeach Laighean. Ba mhaith liom mo mhíle buíochas ó chroí a chur in iúl do mhuintir Dhún na nGall Thiar-Theas, a chuir muinín ionam ionadaíocht a dhéanamh dóibh sa Dáil. Is mór an onóir í dom, do mo theaghlach agus do mo phairtí. Tá sainordú iontach soiléir tugtha dom cur in éadan an bhuiséad atá pleanáilte ag an Rialtas, a bheidh frith-dhaoine agus a ghearrfaidh seirbhíisí poiblí agus iocaíochtaí leasa shóisialaigh. Tugadh sainordú dom freisin cur in éadan an IMF agus iarraidh orthu a shoc a choinneáil amach as gnaithí na tíre. Tá mise anseo mar go bhfuil clár oibre agam agus ag Sinn Féin chun Éire níos fearr agus níos córa a thabhairt chun cinn.

Tá sé soiléir ón rún atá curtha chun tosaigh ag Fine Gael sa Dáil anocht go bhfuil siad díreach cosúil leis an Rialtas. Ná bíodh dabht ar bith ag éinne faoi sin. Dá mbeadh Fine Gael ina bhfíor-pháirtí Freasúrach, beidís ag iarraidh an bhuiséad seo a chaitheamh sa bhruscar agus bheadh clár oibre radacach á bhrú chun tosaigh acu. Bheadh Teachtaí Fhine Gael ag lorg buiséad nach bhfuil dírithe orthu siúd atá ar an ngannchuid ag an bpointe seo agus ag iarraidh ar na sabhair sciar chothrom a íoc. Tá Fine Gael ina shuí anseo anocht ag gearán, seachas an bhuiséad a chur ar athló agus toghchán a reáchtáil. Tá siad ag iarraidh an bhuiséad a thabhairt isteach chomh gasta agus is féidir sa dóigh is go mbeidh siad réidh leis roimh an Nollag. Is masla é do na ghnáthdaoine a chaithfidh ualach an bhuiséid uafásach seo a iompar.

Sinn Féin will not support the motion before the House tonight. Instead, we are proposing an amendment that calls on the Government to postpone the 2011 budget, seek a dissolution of this Dáil and call a general election. I am proud to be joining my fellow Sinn Féin Deputies today, as part of the only real political opposition in Leinster House. I extend my sincere thanks to the people of Donegal South-West for putting their faith in me to represent them in the Dáil. It is a huge honour for me, my family and my party. I have been given a clear mandate to oppose the savage anti-people budget this Government is planning, to oppose cuts to public services and social welfare and to oppose IMF interference in our country. The platform on which I stood advocated a better and fairer way for Ireland. Sinn Féin is the only party putting forward a constructive alternative in the Dáil.

As part of the consensus for cuts, Fine Gael has firmly nailed its colours to the mast in terms of where it stands on this budget. Any real Opposition party worth its salt would push for this budget to be scrapped. It would pursue a radical agenda that does not target the least well off and makes the wealthy pay their fair share. Instead, Fine Gael has proposed a motion that does not call on the Government to scrap the budget and call an election, but demands that the budget be brought forward so it can be done and dusted before Christmas. It is an insult to ordinary working people, those without work and those who rely on public services. It is inevitable that such people will bear the brunt of this unfair and unjust budget. The people are sick to the back teeth of this type of stale elitist politics. It is exactly the type of politics that has brought us to where we are today.

The measures to be contained in the budget amount to little more than a full-on attack on the least well off and on working people. Anyone who thinks implementing deflationary and draconian measures will fix the economy is delusional. If cuts worked, we would not need the IMF and the ECB to arrive on the scene to run our fiscal affairs.

The four year plan which acts as a template for the budget is, in the main, a list of deflationary actions which will deepen and lengthen the recession. The impact of these measures will contract the economy and not a single cent of this will be used to reduce the deficit. Instead, it will all end up being once again pumped into the banks. We are about to embark on an insane course of borrowing to fund a failed banking policy. We cannot afford this plan and we cannot afford this Government. We need real negotiators now to deal with the banks and to burn the bondholders. If the Fine Gael Party were serious about changing the direction and getting rid of this redundant Government, its members would not be sitting here tonight calling for a rush to be put on this lunacy.

Slashing the minimum wage and social welfare payments, reducing tax bands, sacking 25,000 public sector workers, implementing property taxes, water charges, increasing student charges, are not a recipe for recovery. This is a recipe for economic destruction. We need to take this Government down and we need to end these cuts now.

There is a better and fairer way which does not target the most vulnerable and which ensures that those who have most, pay the most. We in Sinn Féin have shown this way in our pre-budget submission. We are the only party to have done so to date.

During the course of the Donegal South-West by-election, I met with many people who were struggling to make ends meet, people who were trying to cope with the rising costs and with Government cuts. I met people like the mother of the autistic child whose special needs preschool is in danger of being shut down, the father of four who is living on a shoestring and who is close to losing his job, people like the elderly man who lives on his own and who has lost his home help service. I also met people like the elderly woman who is caring for her husband with a heart condition and who cannot afford health costs, the young family desperately hoping to be allocated a local authority house in time for Christmas or the first-year student who has to drop out of college, to drop out of education, because she could not get a grant. These are the people whom the political classes want to make pay for their sins and that of the corrupt bankers. These are the same people who time and again are being ignored by those in political power. These people and hundreds of thousands more like them, deserve better than to be treated as mere statistics. They do not deserve the lies, the greed or the cronyism that has got us into this mess. They need and deserve real leadership and real change.

Across the country, young people from my generation and younger, are packing their bags and leaving. They have given up on Ireland because those in political power have long ago given up on them. I come from a family forced to emigrate in the 1960s in search of work. I look around and the same thing is happening all over again. We are losing a generation of talent, energy and enthusiasm. Many of those who leave our shores will never return home again. This Government has not only broken our economy, it has also broken up our families. Emigration has been a part of our past and we cannot allow it become a part of our future. We can stop it now by looking at alternatives which are credible, which work and which are fair.

The Sinn Féin pre-budget submission is credible and it is fair. It is credible if it is introduced with measures such as a wealth tax, which would raise €1 billion by introducing a 1% income-linked tax on all assets in excess of €1 million, excluding the working farmland. We propose a third rate of income tax of 48% on individual incomes in excess of €100,000. We would end the culture of extravagant salaries for those at the high end of the public sector by placing a cap of €100,000 on wages in that sector. The days of chief executive officers of public bodies earning hundreds of thousand euro must end and it must end now. Our proposals would see Ministers taking 40% pay cuts, Deputies taking 20% pay cuts, a reductions in salaries for Senators and an end to the exorbitant expenses scandal. Savings in public expenditure can be made by dismantling the two-tier public health system and eliminating wasteful expenditure such as the rental of prefabs in schools.

The measures in our pre-budget submission would reduce the deficit this year by €4.6 billion. However, we would implement and introduce a job creation and retention strategy by transferring €7 billion from the National Pensions Reserve Fund, generating much-needed employment and building necessary infrastructure. It is through these measures that the Government can introduce a budget which truly protects the most vulnerable and weakest in society, which does not take from low and middle income earners and which ensures that our public services are fit for purpose for those dependent on them. It is through these measures that we can get our country back to work, harnessing the skills, the talents and the drive of the Irish people.

In the next week, this Government will introduce a budget which is about to cripple the Irish people. Sinn Féin stands here ready to fight this Government tooth and nail to ensure this budget does not happen. Fine Gael tonight shows that it is trying to rush this budget through, ignoring the fact that it will hurt families who are already hurting. All Fine Gael wants is to bring on the election and try to get into power while forgetting about the misery, the pain and the anger and how the ordinary people will be affected.

I am proud to be standing in this Chamber today as a Sinn Féin Deputy for Donegal South-West. I am proud to be standing here with the core republican values deep in my heart and it is these values that will steer me in the times ahead. I know that when Government Deputies walked into this Chamber on their first day, none of them came here with the intention of inflicting pain and suffering on their communities, that none of them wanted to sell out their country to the IMF but that is exactly what they have done.

The time is up for this Government. It is time for the Members opposite to pack their bags. It is time for them to clear out and it is time for real leadership, a real alternative, a party with real vision, such as Sinn Féin is offering, to give the Irish people a chance to get back on track and back on their feet again.

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