Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

Did it occur to the Taoiseach at all that the political establishment in this State, and the established media, lost their collective reason over the past week and seemed to have lost all touch with reality, with the intoxication of the visits by high profile establishment figures, the Queen and the Prime Minister of Britain and President Obama?

Is it not clear that all elements of the establishment investigated meanings and significance into these visits that went way beyond reality and that it was done as a convenient distraction from the disaster inflicted by that self-same establishment in its various components on our people, with disastrous economic consequences? Has the Taoiseach an estimate of the costs of these visits? What on earth are we going to do with all the steel barriers that would stretch from Dublin to Castlebar and back many times? Will he consider erecting them along the east coast to perhaps prevent further invasions by the EU-IMF and so for once give them a useful use for the people?

The Taoiseach correctly said he is not in control of the British Government but he is in control of the Irish Government and therefore responsible for the critical issues of our economy. Is the Taoiseach seriously telling the House that he did not discuss with Prime Minister Cameron the interest rate on the loan of the British Government to Ireland following the disastrous financial crisis, that he did not discuss the issue of the interest rate set down by the EU-IMF and ECB? Did the Taoiseach lobby that Britain would support a sharp reduction in those interest rates? Did he discuss the fact of the grip of the bondholders on this country and the fact that they should be burned? If he did not discuss these issues, what was the meeting about in terms of economic issues because these are among the most critical issues we face?

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