Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party)

This is supposed to be a question and answer session in which Members on this side of the House ask questions and the Minister is supposed to answer them. I will deal with the facts in Europe on European day. There are 25 million people unemployed, the largest number since the start of the eurozone. It is largely a consequence of the policies of austerity being perpetrated throughout Europe. There is the same situation in Ireland where, despite all the Minister's waffle about job creation and the agencies speaking about job creation, there are 100,000 fewer people working now than was the case at the time of the second referendum on the Lisbon treaty. How does continuing with more of the same address the chronic unemployment situation not just in Ireland but throughout Europe?

My next question is about the ECB. The Minister spoke about the ECB releasing more than €1 trillion in funds at 1% to the banks and how this was such a great thing. Given that she told us she is leading the charge throughout Europe, which is totally laughable and nobody buys it for a minute, where is her commentary on the fact that the ECB should be releasing those funds to national governments to stimulate jobs programmes and so forth? If we ratify this treaty, that avenue will be excluded from us.

With regard to growth, the Minister continuously refers to the targeted cutbacks that will be necessary to achieve the austerity treaty targets. That has been supported by economists. Based on the Department's growth figures by 2015, the amount of extra cuts required will be €5.7 billion. The Minister's answer to that is to say it is only if the economy does not grow and if there is no inflation. The reality is that every growth projection figure from Government Departments has been wrong. Why will the Government get it right this time when it got it wrong every other time?

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