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

Facing into Ireland's Presidency the key issue facing the people of this country and those across Europe is what kind of Europe we will have and what the Government will do to shape the future direction of Europe. The answer to the question as to what kind of Europe we should have is that we should have the sort of Europe the people want. In recent days we have got very clear messages from the citizens of Europe about what sort of Europe they want. In France, Greece, Holland and Austria and with mass protests in countries such as Spain and Portugal the message from the people of Europe is unmistakable. They are saying that they want an end to a Europe which is characterised by brutal austerity being inflicted on ordinary families and citizens in order to bail out banks and speculators. They want a Europe which prioritises jobs, economic growth, fairness and a decent standard of living for all. They want a people's Europe. Sadly all the evidence coming from the Government, Chancellor Merkel and the Government's new best pals in Fianna Fáil indicates that they are hell-bent on continuing to cling to the failed policies and the failed agenda for Europe that has led us to the catastrophic crisis that Europe now faces. They are hell-bent on continuing to cling to the discredited policy of bailing out banks and speculators at all costs and at the expense of the welfare, jobs and hopes of ordinary citizens, sacrificing those things on the altar of banks and profit-hungry financial markets.

Whatever fine words and high-flung rhetoric the Government may use in the run-in to or during the Presidency, its real agenda for Europe is contained in its commitment to the austerity treaty. Under pressure from the people of Europe and the citizens of this country, it can repeat the words "growth" and "jobs" all it likes, but simply saying those words does not create jobs or growth. A commitment to the fiscal austerity treaty is incompatible with any serious commitment to creating jobs and promoting growth in this country or across Europe. All the evidence is clear on that matter. The impact of austerity over the past four years has been disastrous and has failed to produce anything but greater levels of unemployment and deeper economic stagnation and recession. It has had precisely that effect in this country. At what point will the Taoiseach acknowledge that?

The Taoiseach has accused us of fantasy economics in opposing the fiscal treaty and tried to claim that it is the Government that is being realistic and pragmatic. However, the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council - set up by the IMF and not a left-wing think tank - has set out clearly the figures showing what will be required to meet the debt and deficit targets over the coming years. Those figures make it clear that the Government would need to inflict a brutal level of cuts - billions of euro of cuts - for years if we sign up to this treaty. An alarming graph in the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council's recent report shows what would happen if we miss our growth targets by even 1%. It shows the Government would need to ratchet up the level of cuts from €8.6 billion over the next three years to more than €13 billion and all the signs are that the Government's growth projection targets will be missed by a very significant amount and are being downgraded. Will the Government continue down a failed road or will it recognise what the people of Europe and this country want, which is to change tack, end the austerity agenda and put the jobs and welfare of citizens first?

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