Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)

The reckless economic policies pursued by Fianna Fáil during the boom created the economic crisis. The years of austerity and bank bailouts that it followed deepened the crisis. Now the continuation of these same policies by Fine Gael and the Labour Party will only serve to make matters worse.

Across the country people will have watched the Minister deliver his budget speech today and they will be growing increasingly despondent. They will feel angry, hurt and badly let down. I appeal directly to every one of them - the people who want change and voted for it last February, and to every person who feels we deserve better - and I want every person contemplating emigration, or who is at his or her lowest, or feels there is no light at the end of this tunnel to know that real change is still possible and that there are people in this State who believe in, and have a vision of, a better, fairer Ireland and, with their help, can make this a better country.

There are better choices despite the fact that Fine Gael and the Labour Party decided not to take them in this budget. Sinn Féin has championed the alternative. It has argued that the priority in this budget should have been investment in jobs. We argued against spending cuts and pointed out that the tax system needed to be overhauled and the wealthy had to pay their fair share. I advise the Taoiseach and the Minister that no wealthy person ever died from having to pay more taxes. However, the cuts the Minister inflicted on health services and social welfare payments yesterday will mean the difference between life and death. Some 5,000 people die prematurely every year in this State because of inequality in areas such as health. Up to 2,000 people die each winter due to the cold. How many more people will die from fuel poverty or inadequate access to health care following the Government's cuts? As if the cuts were not bad enough, today it heaped more pain on people with its stealth taxes – the VAT rise, the carbon tax and the household charge.

Undoubtedly, Ireland needs to stabilise its finances. We need to return to the bond markets as soon as possible and Sinn Féin is of the opinion that the sooner the better we get out of this mess so that we can get back our sovereignty, but where we differ with this and the previous Government is over the best and fastest way to do that. I am firmly of the view that continuing with Fianna Fáil's failed banking policy will not help our chances of recovery. I am joined in this view by economists of the left, centre and right. It is hard to find somebody bar Fine Gael, the Labour Party, Fianna Fáil, the ECB and banks who think it is unjustifiable to put €3.1 billion into Anglo Irish Bank or to continue to repay the unguaranteed bondholders in full but that is what the Government is doing. It has already fully recapitalised the banks while the rest of Europe waits to see if the EFSF or ECB will pick up the tab for them. Bailing out banks and bondholders while asking the sick, the elderly and children to pick up the tab is shameful. Leaving aside the banking crisis, we have a structural deficit that must be reduced. In our pre-budget submission we set out a package of measures that would close the deficit, starting with a figure of €3.5 billion in new measures in 2012. This would bring the deficit to 8.3% of GDP when implemented alongside our proposed €7 billion stimulus package. We propose this stimulus package could be funded from what remains of the National Pension Reserve Fund and by partial investment from the European Investment Bank.

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