Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

The 2011 budget disproportionately targeted families on low incomes and in receipt of social welfare. The previous Government stated in this House to the Irish people that there was no alternative but to introduce the savage cuts and tax measures of that budget. When the current Government came along its mantra was that there was no alternative but to continue with these savage cuts. There is definitely an alternative and it is outlined in our motion.

We have long demanded that Irish Governments use our natural resources for the public good. We made that call in 1919 in the democratic programme of an Chéad Dáil, and we are making that call again today at a time when our nation's sovereignty is no less in jeopardy. In 1919 the British Crown was trying to wrestle the regained sovereignty from the risen people. In the democratic programme of an Chéad Dáil, Sinn Féin declared, on behalf of the Irish people, that it is our duty to exploit Ireland's mineral deposits in the interests and for the benefit of the Irish people. The vote on this motion will expose who has remained true to that basic principle, which is the promise to put Ireland's needs first.

Alongside the Government's duty to exploit our natural resources for our benefit, the 1919 democratic programme also declared that it was the Government's first duty to make provision for the physical, mental and spiritual well-being of the children and see that no child should suffer hunger or cold from lack of food, clothing or shelter, with all of these provided with the means and facilities requisite for the proper education and training as citizens of a free and Gaelic Ireland. If the Government fails to harness the wealth of Ireland's natural resources, it cannot fulfil its first duty to Ireland's children.

Almost 100,000 children are living in consistent poverty in the State, with the figure growing by almost 30,000 per year. These children are in families living on incomes below the poverty line, leading to experience of material deprivation. That means children are quite often hungry and cold. Ending child poverty will require immediate and long-term investment for family income supports and in quality public services. Indebting ourselves to the EU and IMF means we can wave goodbye to any prospect of spending required to end child poverty in this State. We simply cannot afford to hand over any valuable natural resources or assets along with all the taxes paid by workers to finance multinational corporations, banks, bondholders or the IMF and ECB.

There is an alternative and we cannot afford the mechanism upon which this and the previous Government have embarked in indebting our country. The Government will continue to fail in its duty to provide for the income, housing, health and educational needs of these children if it does not reverse the odious and treacherous deal which will see multinational corporations rob the Irish people of natural resources which are rightly ours.

The deals entered into by previous Governments and endorsed recently by this Government amount to economic treason. That Ireland will have to buy back its own oil and gas at market cost is economic treason. That little or no revenue will accrue from the extraction and sale of Ireland's gas and oil is economic treason. That the Norwegian people will get more benefit from these natural resources than Ireland will is economic treason. That Ireland, under the current arrangement, will receive just 3.6% of the value of the Corrib field is economic treason. That this Government would forego the billions of euro that could potentially be raised from these resources, and thus let Ireland's children go poor, is economic treason. I urge the Minister, even at this late stage, to support our motion and withdraw the craven amendment tabled by the Government.

See this speech in context