Dáil debates

Tuesday, 21 February 2012

4:00 pm

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

My questions are related to whether there was any discussion at the Council meeting in January on the impact of the austerity programme on the potential for growth in the economy, on what it had done to the Greek economy and on what, according to all the mounting evidence, it was doing to the entire European economy. The Taoiseach may have seen an article by the economist Paul Krugman in today's edition of The Irish Times in which he has yet again pleaded with political leaders across Europe to break with what he describes as the "destructive folly" of austerity and calls "delusional beliefs about the virtues of austerity". He is right, of course, because each week the evidence mounts and new figures confirm that austerity is crippling the European economy. Austerity, not the behaviour of the Greek people, has destroyed the Greek economy and all the evidence is mounting that it will destroy the Irish economy.

I specifically ask the Taoiseach whether he took the time at the Council meeting in January or more recently to talk to the Greek Prime Minister. The Taoiseach has made a virtue of stating how different Ireland is from Greece. I happened to attend an event organised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions this morning on community employment and the devastating consequences of cuts, at which it was pointed out that the level of poverty in Ireland had risen fast and child poverty faster again but that the level of both had risen faster than in Greece. The increase in the incidence of suicide in Ireland is on a par with that in Greece. What has happened in Greece in the past year is absolutely shocking, in that its suicide rate has doubled and all the health professionals there and everyone who has examined this issue has stated this is as a direct result of the austerity to pay off bankers and bondholders. Moreover, Ireland has seen a similar dramatic increase in the level of suicide and no one in his or her right mind is unaware of the connection between this increase and austerity.

I also ask the Taoiseach about job creation. At the presentation I attended this morning organised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions its report confirmed that, according to the Government's own figures, the level of employment in the community and voluntary sector would drop from 48,000 when the Administration came into power to 36,000 in this vital sector that provides a range of services, including child care, health care and sports services. The level of employment will fall as a direct result of the cuts the Government is imposing. How can it talk about this or how can leaders in Europe at summit meetings talk about their concern about the level of youth unemployment which, as the Taoiseach has pointed out, is running at 29% and then implement austerity measures that will lead to a reduction of 12,000 in the number who work in the voluntary and community sectors over the term of the Government? Moreover, this only pertains to a single sector.

It is clear at every level that this does not make sense. I ask the Taoiseach whether there is any cognisance or awareness, either within the Government or at summit meetings of European Union leaders, of what all economists are saying and what each set of statistics confirms, that austerity is not just causing immense suffering but, in terms of all its stated objectives, is also failing? It is contracting growth, increasing the level of unemployment and making matters worse. At what point will this issue be discussed or will it just be left to the pages of the Financial Times and Nobel Prize winning economists to point this out? Will the policy leaders in Europe discuss it at any point? Moreover, what are they going to do about it when everything they do and each decision they make is making matters worse? Furthermore, agreeing to a treaty that will institutionalise austerity which has failed for three years for at least another seven or eight simply defies belief. The Taoiseach should indicate whether there was any serious discussion of this issue.

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