Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)

The people came out in huge numbers on 25 February last with hope in their hearts for change, for new political leadership and for a challenge to the injustice they have faced for so long now.

Like all the TDs in the House today, I canvassed my constituency of Donegal North-East and I listened to what I can only describe as the stories of despair related to emigration again in Donegal. The Taoiseach, as a Mayo man, will be aware of the impact of emigration on his county. On the impact of unemployment, one in three of the working people of Donegal are out of work. I also heard stories of cutbacks and the struggle to pay the bills.

However, there were also remarkable people who will turn this country around. I came across a woman aged 83 who cares for her 22 year old foster son, who was paralysed in a road accident. She has nurtured him, by love, by compassion and by support, back slowly towards having a decent standard of life. These are the people who deserve the support of the Republic and of us in this House, but they have been utterly failed.

It is a fundamental injustice that ordinary working families have been asked to pay the bills of those who were reckless in the financial institutions. This was a failure not merely in the Irish banking system but in the European and international banking system, and yet the ordinary families in Ireland, one of the smallest states in the European Union, have been asked to carry that burden. That is a fundamental injustice that nobody can defend and they hope for change in that regard.

Fine Gael and Labour have won the endorsement of approximately 56% of the people and good luck to them, but they campaigned on something that is very different to what is in the programme for Government. They did not say they would deliver more of the same. They did not say they would not reverse the cuts that have impacted so severely on families such as the universal social charge and the cuts to the unemployed, pensioners in terms of the blind pension and to those on disability payments. Those are the ones who suffered the impact. Student nurses have taken cuts and young students and hard-working families must pay more to send their children to third level education. They said they would do something about all of those matters.

They stated that they would deal with the issue of banking and not allow it to cripple the economy. They did not speak of water charges. They did not speak of property taxes. They did not speak of stealth charges. These are the realities. The campaign they presented to the people does not relate to what is in this programme for Government.

The people voted for change with hope in their hearts. They voted for new political leadership. Our communities have been savaged by this financial crisis. They need to have their faith restored in the political system, not shattered. If the Government implements this programme for Government and if it does not challenge our European partners to do what is right and fair, it will fail them and their faith will be shattered yet again. We cannot have that.

Sinn Féin laid out its plan clearly. We said we need to separate the banking debt from the sovereign debt to take it off the backs of the people. We said that we need to stimulate the economy using the pensions reserve fund to get the economy moving again. We said that the Government can cut the deficit by asking the very wealthy to pay their fair share and asking highly paid civil servants to take a real cut. A €200,000 wage for the Taoiseach will not cut it with ordinary working families who struggle to pay their bills. That is the reality in terms of what has happened with the Government parties.

The issues of cutting the interest rate and corporation tax are distractions. Intelligent people know that these are distractions. What is needed is for the Government to stand up to our European partners. What they have done fundamentally unjust. It is clearly wrong to ask ordinary working families to carry the burden for a fundamental failure and crisis in the banking system across Europe. We must be seen by the international community to stand up to those partners and not have distractions and side shows around interest rates and corporation tax.

The Taoiseach spoke of 2016 in his opening address as Taoiseach and he spoke about the 1916 Proclamation. He knows in his heart that what we have endured, not only in recent years but for decades, has nothing to do with the hope of the 1916 Proclamation. For the 83 year old woman, for her 22 year old foster son and for all those who are unemployed in Donegal, Mayo and across the State, I genuinely hope the Taoiseach succeeds. The programme for Government is not a template for success; it is a template for more of the same. It will shatter the hope for change that brought the people out in huge numbers. I implore the Taoiseach and his colleagues in Government to not pursue this direction and to deliver a real republic and a real revolution for change which is what the people deserve.

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