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

Because, having listened to the speeches from the other side of the House, the Government is trying to suggest enacting the Bill will do something to deal with the reasons we are in the deepest economic crisis the State has ever faced and the European economy is teetering on the edge of an abyss. These measures on which the Government is being dictated to by the European Union and the IMF are supposed to improve the situation and deal with the economic conditions that led to the crisis. It is important for us, therefore, to discuss whether the measures being brought forward by the Government are in any way adequate to deal with the task of confronting the economic crisis we face and the economic conditions that led to the crisis. Frankly, the legislation fails on all counts; it is for the optics. To put it mildly, it is shutting the door after the horse has bolted, but even that metaphor does not go far enough in describing-----

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