Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

Is the Taoiseach concerned, and has he had any discussions with Northern Ireland leaders or his British counterparts, with regard to the effects of the projected stg£4 billion in cuts outlined in the Northern Ireland budget at the beginning of this year? These are, from here on, designed to result in thousands of job losses in the public sector, on which the North is very dependent, as the Taoiseach knows, given the collapse of manufacturing over many decades and the serious effects on health and education.

In view of the fact there are already quite severe areas of disadvantage in working class communities in Northern Ireland in both Protestant and Catholic areas, and serious alienation of a certain cohort of youth in particular, is the Taoiseach concerned that these cuts will give rise to more unemployment, poverty and alienation, and are grist to the mill of dissident paramilitary organisations, whether on the republican or loyalist side, where young people seeing a dead end get diverted into these worse dead ends, with all the destruction that is involved? Will the Taoiseach make representations to the British Government on these issues and even to the leaders of the Assembly, who should be fighting them as well?

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