Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

In discussing Ireland's economic and financial situation, the Taoiseach made much of Ireland's improved reputation but that was not really the question I asked. One cannot eat reputation and it does not provide jobs or services. I asked whether various leaders at the conference recognised that there is a major problem in terms of the impact of austerity strangling economic growth in the eurozone. That will have an impact on human beings who hope to get jobs and hope that they will not lose their homes. They also hope for some way out of the current economic crisis.

Although the Taoiseach did not respond, I further asked whether he learned anything useful about the rapid process of the disposal of State assets and the sale of natural resources in eastern European states. As I understand it, the result of that process was the creation of a tiny coterie of multi-billionaire oligarchs who now preside over those formerly State-owned assets. Meanwhile, the people who worked for those State enterprises now face high levels of unemployment and social misery as a result of the privatisation process in those states. Did the Taoiseach learn anything useful that might be beneficial to us, given the demands of the Troika to sell State assets here in a similar way?

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