Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)

Let me give the Taoiseach some figures, if I may, for him to cogitate on - these are from the Irish League of Credit Unions. Some 1.8 million citizens have less than €100 per month to live on, after bills are paid. Some 50% have had to borrow to pay household bills in the past, with 10% of them using moneylenders in the past 12 months. Some 17%, or over 600,000 citizens, have nothing left each month when the bills are paid.

We sometimes wonder why people become disenchanted with and alienated from electoral politics and parliamentary systems. This is all as a result of austerity and if we were all in it together-----

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