Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)

Following the EU Council's summit meeting last week, the European Commission Secretary General, Catherine Day, called the Irish bailout "tough but sustainable". For the Irish taxpayer and Ireland's future generations, there is nothing sustainable about the figures announced on Monday by the IMF, which included a predicted drop in growth rate from 0.9% to 0.5%, among the lowest of any country in the developed world, and further increases in unemployment.

What is clear, though, from these new figures and from the results of the recent stress tests, is that Ireland will never be able to sustain the EU-IMF loan. As the Nobel Prize-winning economist, Joseph Stiglitz, pointed out in The Irish Times this week:

Even in more optimistic scenarios, Ireland's debt to GDP ratio is expected to soar to 125 per cent in 2013, up from 25% in 2007. Low growth could make things worse, as stagnant GDP offsets the reduction in Ireland's debt. If Europe continues to falter - 2011 growth is projected to be lower even than last year - this will make recovery all the more difficult.

He went on to point out that the question of which policies are right is being distorted by an effort to save the banks and in the article also stated:

Even the EU is now anticipating that projections made just a short while ago were too rosy. But the EU recipe for recovery is more of the same: to meet the deficit reduction targets, more austerity – which in turn means still lower growth and still higher unemployment.

It does not take an economic genius to figure out where all this will inevitably lead. It creates a perverse cycle where austerity kills growth and that in turn causes revenue to fall. The fall in revenue then adds to the deficits and creates a demand for even more funding and more austerity. It is a perfect example of the self-fulfilling prophecy.

The words of Stiglitz will come as no surprise to Irish taxpayers who have had to witness billions upon billions of their money being pumped into a bottomless black hole. The EU, the IMF, and our Government all call this a "bailout". But the truth is that the only people being bailed out are the protected bondholders. This sentiment is being echoed by prominent European and international organisations, such as the European Trade Union Institute, ETUI, the European Trade Union Confederation, ETUC and the International Labour Organisation, ILO, which have also stated that a prolonged process of austerity in the absence of a co-ordinated public investment plan from Europe can only depress the Irish economy further. This downward spiral will only be halted by a redirection of priorities, away from the saving of banks and toward the creation of jobs and economic growth.

Sinn Féin has consistently called for the investment of the resources in the National Pensions Reserve Fund into a concentrated programme for job creation. The previous Fianna Fáil and Green Party Government decided to pump those assets into the failing banks, and the current Government is now following suit. Sinn Féin believes we must exploit our resources for the national good, for our economy, our industry and our people. In stark contrast, both the current Government and its immediate predecessors have chosen to sell them off. Where is the vision? Where is the hope for future generations when our Tánaiste signs his consent to the Corrib pipeline because he believes it meets all the preconditions, yet his party criticised the former Minister, former Deputy Pat Carey, for issuing the consent on the day of the election?

Instead of protecting our resources and challenging their being auctioned off, which we are witnessing, the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Pat Rabbitte, has limply regurgitated the same briefings from the Department that were issued by previous Ministers. Rather than do what is right by the people, this Fine Gael and Labour Party Government prefers to follow a road map that will secure the assets not of this country or its people but of European banks and their bondholders. Rather than opening up their minds to consider real alternatives that have been put forward not just by our party but also by Independent Deputies, national and international economists, Nobel Prize winners and international and European labour organisations, this Government prefers to commit the Irish people to following a flawed plan forced on them by the EU and IMF.

What is that plan? It amounts to nothing more than inflicting massive pain and suffering on ordinary people in order to pay off monstrous debts incurred by reckless banks at extortionate rates from our European partners and the IMF. How can a country with a population of 4.4 million, and a working population of less than half that number, cope with a debt that is escalating by the billions at what appears to be a weekly rate? It is lunacy.

The ETUC has already sent clear warning signals to European institutions about its concern for the way the EU and the IMF are tackling the Irish, Greek and Portuguese crises. It stated that some measures in the recent economic governance package touch upon industrial relations and taxation. It is clear that the real aim of including these measures in the package is to reduce the wages and living standards of ordinary people across Europe, rather than to strengthen the regulation of European banks and financial markets. Reckless lending and reckless gambling by these speculators is what fuelled the financial crisis across Europe. Ireland is not alone. Unfortunately, many more of our European partners will soon be sharing our misery.

The EU is leading this Fine Gael and Labour Party Government by the nose into an exploding economic depression. The policies it is following amount to little more than further deregulation of labour markets, wage cuts, tax increases and reductions in Government spending. Elite policy makers across the EU are responsible for the eurozone debt crisis and it is time we confronted them and told them so. The IMF and ECB are demanding that Irish citizens bear the burden of the mistakes made by international financial wizards. We are being told that we must socialise the losses, while the gains can continue to be privatised.

Again, Ireland is not alone in this mess. We have plenty of company now. Ireland's problem is a European problem and it reflects a stark structural imbalance between the core and the periphery. The countries on the periphery of Europe - Ireland, Greece, Portugal and perhaps more to follow - are caught up in a European financial storm. Where is the solidarity from our large core European partners such as Germany and France? They have placed a savage and unbearable burden on our people - a burden that should have been shared because the responsibility for the crisis lies with Europe as much as Ireland. They have kicked us while we are down and they have torn the stated objectives of the European project into tatters.

International opinion is clear. Respected observers are looking in amazement at how we have been abandoned and punished. The European Council meeting is the core policy making centre of Europe; above all the institutions, it is where the strategic direction is decided. We have an unprecedented economic crisis and it was not even raised, according to what the Taoiseach said. It was not even on the agenda for that core summit Council meeting. That is wrong. We must change tack. I appeal to the Government to stand up against this injustice, to invoke the spirit of those honourable men and women who sacrificed so much so we would have the honour of serving in this House, to immediately engage in a robust diplomatic initiative against this patent injustice and to seek realistic and genuinely sustainable terms for our people. We are not alone. It is not too late.

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