Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

I wondered what it was all for when he repeated merely the platitudes of nine months ago. When he said the Government would do all it can to protect the most vulnerable, our children, the sick and the elderly, can I ask him to agree he is guilty of the most monumental hypocrisy since yesterday the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform attacked the children, the sick and the elderly in many forms? I ask him to acknowledge that he did not make the difficult choices, as he claimed, but continued to obey the diktats of the sharks in the financial markets, orchestrated by Merkel and Sarkozy, that working and poor people must pay for the financial crisis of the European banking system.

Is the Taoiseach aware that there are substantial assets and wealth held by the very richest in this society that are absolutely untouched by this Government? Does he know the Central Statistics Office in a survey totalled the net financial and other assets for 2010 in this State at €468 billion after liabilities and debt, and that Credit Suisse, the multinational financial services company, estimated the wealthiest 5% in this State owned 46% of those assets, giving them €219 billion net of loans? When a 5% tax on that would yield €10 billion, why does the Taoiseach not look in that direction and take from those who would not even feel it rather than feeling free to hit the disabled, the children, the sick and the elderly?

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