Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

Does the Taoiseach agree that, for many of us, it is deeply disappointing to hear today that whatever reflection he did over the Christmas break, he has not recognised in the Dáil's first meeting of 2012 that the austerity policy is an absolute disaster economically and socially? Does he not see the significant contradiction in a supposedly sovereign Dáil meeting when, 100 metres from here, the EU, IMF and ECB are in Government Buildings enforcing the diktat of private institutions and European financial markets to the effect that their speculators must be repaid tens of billions of euro by the Irish people for gambling private debts and demanding that the Government channel these tens of billions of euro while it shreds jobs, living standards and health and education services? Does the Taoiseach not accept that the Government is not much more than a puppet government? Does he not see that its decision to continue almost identically the bailout and austerity policy of its predecessor is poisoning every aspect of life in the State? Is it not clear that Revenue, for example, felt under considerable pressure when it sent thousands of letters scarifying pensioners to beat out the €45 million that the Minister for Finance secretly, quietly and sneakily included in the budget?

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