Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)

I dtús báire, ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabháil le gach éinne - mo chlann ina measc - a thug tacaíocht dom agus do Sinn Féin san olltoghchán. Is mór an chúis ómóis é bheith mar Theachta Dála le haghaidh muintir Bhaile Átha Cliath Thiar Thuaidh. Tá athrú á lorg ag na daoine. Tá sé le feiceáil i mo phobal féin - an t-aon dáilcheantar nár thogh Teachta ar bith ó Fianna Fáil nó Fine Gael. Déanfaidh mé mo sheacht ndícheall obair a dhéanamh ar son gach éinne - ní hamháin iad siúd a thug a vóta dom. I am proud to be here today as a Sinn Féin Deputy. I thank the people of Dublin North-West for the mandate they have given me to represent them and their interests. Dublin North-West is the only constituency in the State that did not return a Fianna Fáil or a Fine Gael Deputy. That reflects the mood of change that my team and I encountered during the election campaign. I wish also to thank my family and all those who worked tirelessly to put forward the Sinn Féin message that there is a better way.

I was elected to stand up for ordinary working people and families in areas such as Finglas, Ballymun, Santry, Whitehall and Beaumont. I will use my position here to fight for their rights, for the unemployed, the sick and the vulnerable hard-working low and middle income families who have been pushed to the brink by the last Government. In the course of the election campaign Sinn Féin set out its stall for a better and fairer society, that there is an alternative to the status quo and that Sinn Féin is that alternative.

In considering the motion on the programme for Government, it is frustrating to see how little detail there is in what the new Government has put forward. However, one thing is clear. One of the opening sentences in the programme is that the new Government supports the objectives of the EU-IMF programme of support. This new Government has set out very clearly that it intends to continue with the policies of savage cuts which the last Government pursued and which has served only to prolong and deepen the recession.

One of the planks of the IMF plan, as we have seen in Greece, has been the wholesale sell-off of State assets. I note with deep concern that in this programme for Government the Labour Party has, apparently, signed up to the Fine Gael plan for the sell off of non-strategic State assets. Of course, they provide no detail on what precisely are non-strategic assets. However, I have no doubt this is a plan for privatisation. The programme for Government states that they will sell off up to €2 billion worth of State assets. Given that the most recent figure I have seen for the value of public entities under review by the McCarthy group was €10 billion, that gives some indication of the scale of what we are talking about. The programme also states that the Government will be guided in regard to any sale by the McCarthy report. Given that this report which is due to be presented imminently is widely expected to recommend a large scale sell-off of State assets, that is not much of a comfort to those who make use of the services of the ESB, Bord Gáis or their employees.

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