Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

Does the Taoiseach understand my amazement that he told us he discussed the narrow issue of security with the British Prime Minister but not the devastating consequences of the cuts to social programmes and public services? Do the Taoiseach and the Prime Minister not understand that the social deprivation and misery in many working class areas in the North will be worsened considerably by these draconian cuts? That is grist to the mill for dissident republican and loyalist groups to mislead again alienated youth into the culs-de-sac, as happened in the 1970s and 1980s.

The Taoiseach said this power-sharing Assembly has lasted a term and he is proud of that. What is the point of a power-sharing Assembly which meekly implements, be it under Sinn Féin, SDLP, DUP or UUP, a range of savage cuts in the interests of British banks and big business that will result in desperate consequences for the working class, in the same way the Taoiseach is implementing IMF-EU cuts here at the expense of our people?

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