Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)

Where does one start and stop with all of this? It is incredible that the Taoiseach in his address to the Irish people or any Minister or Deputy in government can argue that their strategy is to see economic growth in our country while they have overseen the removal of €3,800 million from this economy. This is the seventh fiscal adjustment in a row, according to Social Justice Ireland, in which austerity has taken place. This policy has failed spectacularly. It has put more than 450,000 of our people on the dole and has brought back the spectre of emigration yet again to our rural communities.

I come from the Inishowen Peninsula, the most northern peninsula on the island, and my peninsula and county have seen more than their fair share of emigration. My grandfather had to emigrate. He had to send money home at times and he had to come home and build a family home. My father had to emigrate before he was 15 years of age. I have had to emigrate in my time and virtually all my extended family in terms of those who are in their twenties are overseas. Many chairs around tables this Christmas will be empty across Inishowen and Donegal.

The unemployment numbers in my home peninsula of Inishowen have decreased from 5,000 to 4,500. I would like to report that is because of a surge of employment, but it is because of emigration. That is what is happening to our communities.

I do not plead that I am better than and care more than the Government Deputies. I plead and appeal to the sense of Irishness and decency of the Ministers present. What is happening is so wrong - that we would allow a scenario whereby we will pass on €1,200 million of our money to unsecured bondholders in Anglo Irish Bank, and we have done so in recent times with the payment of €750 million. How will future generations, who will probably be living overseas, our grandchild will probably be living in Australia or America, judge us on that? They will read about this situation in books. They will not be here. They will judge us very harshly because they have been a denied a future in their own country. That is the reality of all this.

I listened to talk from the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Hayes, about fiscal responsibility. The facts are that before Ireland entered the euro in the late 1990s we had economic regeneration, export and employment growth and something that genuinely would have been a Celtic tiger and that was sustainable, but when we joined the euro, our banks, those reckless private institutions, were able to access unlimited amounts of cashflow from other European banks which, combined with low interest rates from being in the euro, was like crack cocaine. There was no regulation. It was not only an Irish but a European and an international problem. It was a complete systematic failure of capitalism. The Irish people were not responsible for it. They listened to those in politics and leadership, supported Maastricht and the other treaties eventually, took all the assurances that came to them, did what they were asked to do and now they are being punished beyond belief. We see the blight of emigration and the impact it has on rural communities.

I want to outline for Members opposite some of the impact this budget will have on rural communities. It will result in the closure of Garda stations, the loss of policing services in rural areas and proper policing services as opposed to simply a garda driving around an area in a car every now and again, the threat of bed closures and the closure of community hospitals and nursing units, the loss of funding for basic maintenance of rural roads, the closure of library services in local authority areas because replacement staff cannot be found thanks to the moratorium on recruitment, the erosion of rural transport services, poor and all as they are, a two thirds cut in the value of grants for those on community employment schemes, cuts to schools - I could go on. This is madness: it is insane. No economist on the left, right or in the centre ground in the world believes this makes sense. One cannot cut one's way out of this profound recession. That policy is failing.

The Chinese had a form of capital punishment called death by a thousand cuts. That is what this budget is - it comprises a plethora of small cuts that combined is choking the lives out of our people. However, in his address to our people the Taoiseach stated they were not responsible for this economic malaise and crisis. How can the Government stand over this? I do not preach that I am better than those on the Government benches. I do not claim to be a better person and I do not claim to care more. I presume we care the same, or perhaps those on the Government benches care more, but how can they stand over this? How can they possibly go back to the communities where they were born and reared and meet the people with whom they grew up-----

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