Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group)

I heard a Government Deputy suggest the Government has a mandate for the approach it is taking. Let us be clear on this matter; Fine Gael and the Labour Party do not have a mandate for the policies they are pursuing. When their members travelled the country in January and February last, we heard them distance themselves from the policies of the Fianna Fáil-Green Party Government, promise to burn bondholders and protect vulnerable people and claim that it would be the Labour Party's way rather than Frankfurt's way. We all know what happened. The new Government changed into the old Government's clothes and is operating the same policies as the Fianna Fáil Party before it. We know the austerity and difficulties ordinary people must bear. Someone said earlier that what is happening is not nice. It is not nice, but that is a very mild way of putting it. We handed over €750 million to faceless, anonymous speculators today. These people made a huge profit from speculation. They bought these bonds from 53% to 60% and have made approximately €300 million in a rip-off of the Irish taxpayer today. The Government allowed that to happen, without a murmur.

What is not nice is the other side of the coin, namely, that the so-called Minister for Social Protection is implementing cuts in fuel, electricity and gas allowances, bringing fuel poverty for elderly people. Research to be published in two or three weeks by the Institute of Public Health in Ireland and Dublin Institute of Technology will show that approximately 1,200 people died as a direct result of the lack of heat in the year 2006-07. Age Action Ireland is running a petition currently asking the Government to reverse these cuts. It says it is a life and death situation. I agree. Rather than pay €700 million plus to faceless speculators, the Government should reverse the cuts that affect elderly people who are at risk, not just of ill health or illness but of death, over the coming winter.

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