Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

It was certainly not as insightful as the speaker might have intended.

I will start my short contribution by expressing deep disappointment not only on my own behalf and that of my parliamentary colleagues in Sinn Féin but also on behalf of the many thousands who will be bitterly disappointed with the document we are discussing. As was pointed out by Deputies Pearse Doherty, Mary Lou McDonald and Peader Tóibín yesterday, the current draft of the EU-IMF support programme is in substance and spirit, despite claims to the contrary, the same document as that agreed by the Fianna Fáil and Green Party Government last December.

I listened carefully to the speeches of the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, and the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, yesterday and did not hear one substantive policy proposal or initiative indicating that the programme agreed by the last Government had been renegotiated in a meaningful way. What I heard from the Minister for Finance was little more than a justification for reintroducing the same failed policies of a bank bailout and austerity measures promoted by the last Government. He said he was happy with the flexibility shown by the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund which allowed the Government to introduce "important policy measures". He proceeded to list these measures, including the reversal of the cut in the minimum wage, the comprehensive spending review, the jobs initiative and so-called important changes to banking policy. However, when one examines the text of the EU-IMF programme, one realises none of these measures departs from the substance of the original Fianna Fáil and Green Party deal with the so-called Troika.

The reversal of the cut in the minimum wage is undoubtedly welcome. Sinn Féin campaigned with others against the original cut when it was imposed. However, Fine Gael and the Labour Party have balanced this decision with a clear commitment to attack the wages of up to 300,000 low paid workers in the State. The revised EU-IMF programme clearly indicates that significant changes to the wage rates set through the registered employment agreements and employment regulation orders are to be delivered this year. Let there be no mistake that when changes are spoken about in this context, what is meant is cuts. Such cuts will not only drive thousands of families deeper into debt and poverty, they will also further depress the economy, particularly local and regional economies, resulting in increasing levels of private sector unemployment.

The revised EU-IMF programme also contains a commitment to reduce the public sector payroll either through cuts in the number of staff or cuts in wages. Not only will these measures continue to undermine the ability of front-line public service providers to cope with increasing levels of demand in schools, hospitals and community services in general, they will also further depress the economy, particularly local economies, resulting in further job losses.

The cuts do not stop there. Yesterday the Minister lauded the introduction of the comprehensive spending review as a sign of the Troika's flexibility. The spending review is about introducing further cuts in spending on public services, particularly health, education and social welfare. None of this represents a departure in any shape or form from the parameters of the agreement reached by the previous Government.

What is probably the single largest disappointment in the document is the paragraph on the so-called jobs initiative. Throughout the general election campaign both Fine Gael and the Labour Party told the electorate that the only way to get the economy back on track was by creating jobs. I agree that creating jobs is an essential element if we are to turn the economy around. The Taoiseach had a five point plan to get Ireland back to work, while the Tánaiste, Deputy Eamon Gilmore, promised a strategic investment bank with substantial funds to invest in employment. Despite these promises, the 41 page revised EU-IMF programme contains only a single sentence on job creation, promising that the now downgraded jobs initiative will be revenue neutral. While we will not know the full detail of this initiative until next week, there is little doubt in my mind and in the minds of many other people that it will pale into insignificance when set alongside the hefty pre-election promises of the parties which form this new coalition Government. That will be a bitter disappointment to the hundreds of thousands of men and women across the country who are unemployed, who are struggling to find work and who are waiting to see what the Government will do to assist them.

The final matter to which I refer relates to the banks. The Minister, Deputy Noonan, suggested that the Government had secured significant changes in this area of policy. However, the truth tells a very different story. The banking policy contained in the revised programme continues the failed approach of the previous Government to pump billions of taxpayers' euros - including up to €10 billion from the National Pensions Reserve Fund - into toxic banks without any social or economic reward to the State or its people.

Unfortunately, the Minister, Deputy Noonan, and his Government colleagues have neither the will nor the ability to secure the kind of change in policy they promised the electorate in the run-up to polling day on 25 February. The simple reason for this is that they have never offered a real alternative. There is no evidence of such an alternative. Despite the rhetoric and the empty promises, those now in government were always committed to implementing the same failed policies of bailing out the banks, imposing public service cuts and promoting austerity pursued by those who preceded them in office, namely, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party.

I will comment on the remarks of the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Burton. The previous speaker also referred to the Minister's contribution. Unable to respond directly to the criticisms levelled by my party colleagues, Deputy Burton again tried to deflect those criticisms by misrepresenting decisions taken by Sinn Féin in respect of the bank guarantee of September 2008. The Minister is well aware - she was a Member at the time - that the version of events she recounted is neither accurate nor honest. More significant is that while they opposed the guarantee when in opposition, the Minister and her Labour Party colleagues are not willing to reverse that guarantee now that they are in government. The real test of a political party is not what is says in opposition but rather what it does in government. On the basis of its ongoing support for the blanket guarantee, the Labour Party has clearly failed the test in this regard.

I reiterate the views expressed by Deputies Doherty, McDonald and Tóibín to the effect that the revised EU-IMF programme presented to us yesterday by the Government represents nothing more than the same failed policies agreed by Fianna Fáil and the Green Party in 2010. It will do nothing to address the social and economic problems the State faces; neither will it do anything to get people back to work, to reform our public services or to restructure our banking system in the interests of society and the economy. It again demonstrates that the parties in government may be different in name than their predecessors but that, in substance, they are exactly the same.

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