Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I would, because it is in all our interests. While I did not vote for the Government, people across the country have wanted the Minister and his colleagues to succeed in their endeavours since taking office. That is the position, regardless of whether one voted for the Government. It is true that it inherited a social and economic mess of unprecedented proportions. It has been well thrashed out that Fianna Fáil drove the economy over a cliff. Throughout its 14 years in office it fed a speculative banking and property boom which led to the biggest economic crisis in the history of the State. When it left office the incoming Government inherited unemployment and emigration levels which were returning to historical highs. The banking system was in tatters. Health and education services were in crisis and the economic sovereignty of the State was in the process of being handed over to the troika.

I do not underestimate the difficult job the Minister has had in the past two years, nor do I believe there were easy choices or quick solutions to the problems created by Deputy Micheál Martin and other Fianna Fáil leaders up to 2011. However, as the Fine Gael and Labour Party Government approaches its second anniversary, it is clear that its management of the economy is as much a failure as that of its predecessors. One has to examine the stark reality: there are 435,000 people on the live register; unemployment stands at 14.8%; long-term unemployment stands at a shocking 60% of the overall amount; emigration is back with a vengeance; and a total of 1,600 people leave the country every single week - that amounts to nine people giving up on the State every single hour, the vast majority of whom are young people who are leaving not because of their desire to see the rest of the world but in search of work and a better future. There will be no Celtic comeback for them and the majority, as the economy is not recovering. Almost every single social and economic indicator tells us that what the Government has done since taking office has made things worse, not better.

One cannot build the economy on the basis of Time magazine covers. This is not a Hollywood blockbuster. The Minister is not in Kansas. He cannot just click his heels and think everything will be okay. If he wants to rebuild the economy, he must make the right choices. He must decide whether he wants to repay all of the private banking debt or say clearly that the debt is unsustainable and cannot be repaid. He must also decide whether to blindly cut the domestic economy into oblivion or to invest in job creation and growth. He must further decide whether to continue to heap the burden of the cuts on low and middle income families or to make those with most ability to pay stump up their fair share. These are the choices the Government faces in the weeks and months ahead. Unfortunately, the Minister is making all the wrong choices. He is slavishly following the same failed economic policies as his predecessors. On taking office he bought lock, stock and barrel into Fianna Fáil’s programme for national recovery and the crippling austerity of the troika memorandum of understanding. He has faithfully implemented Fianna Fáil's cuts agenda. He has also faithfully implemented Fianna Fáil’s bank bailout agenda and, just like Fianna Fáil, the Government is running the economy into the ground.

Increasingly, people across the State are waking up to the fact that on 25 February 2011 nothing changed. All the promises made during the election campaign have come to nothing. Instead, just like Fianna Fáil, the Government is heaping the burden of the economic crisis on low and middle-income families and allowing those who created the crisis to get off scot free.

I am sure the Minister is well aware that on Monday the Irish League of Credit Unions published the latest instalment of its "What's Left" tracker. This is an invaluable piece of research which highlights the human impact of the Government's failed management of the economy. It tells us that half of adults are now struggling to pay their bills and that 42% of people had to borrow money to pay their bills during the last 12 months. Eight in 10 people are worried that they will not be able to cope with rising energy costs this winter. Almost 100% of people are worried that budget 2013 will make life harder for them and 52% are concerned about the impact of the property tax next year. Behind these statistics are real people who are struggling to get by every day.

Last week in Donegal I was approached by a woman who told me she did not support Sinn Féin but supported another political party. She told me about a mother of six children who every day has to dilute the milk with water to make it last the week. This is the only way she can get by. The woman who spoke to me asked me to raise this matter in the Dáil so that the Minister and his colleagues around the Cabinet table would realise the human impact of the policies they are pursuing. We all know that the woman from Letterkenny is not alone; there are many like her throughout the State. For this woman and the hundreds of thousands like her, things are getting worse. The cost of their gas and electricity bills is rising. The cost of their health insurance, if they have it, is rising, and so are their mortgages. Yet thanks to the changes in the last budget, these people have less and less money in their pockets each week. What happens when these people have less money? They spend less, local businesses suffer and jobs are lost. This is why the domestic economy remains in recession. The Government's policies and those of the troika are choking domestic demand and blocking a return to economic growth. It seems the Minister has learned nothing from the crisis.

When Klaus Regling produced his report into the collapse of our banking system he spoke of a "herd mentality". The term was used for about a week and was discussed at length in this House, as was the inability of key decision makers to listen to critical or alternative advice. It seems we have replaced the herd mentality of the boom years with the herd mentality of austerity. Deficit reduction is the new mantra. Meeting the troika's deficit targets seems to be the only concern of the Government. No consideration is given to the social and economic cost of reaching these targets. We are being governed by a herd of deficit hawks, slavishly pursuing a course that is destroying the domestic economy, our public services and the fabric of family and community life for many.

Just as there were alternatives to the herd mentality during the boom, so there are alternatives to the herd mentality of austerity. Since the start of this crisis, my party, Sinn Féin, along with others, has been arguing for another way. In place of unlimited bank bailouts we have argued for debt reduction. In place of crippling austerity we have argued for progressive tax and public spending reform. In place of rising unemployment and emigration we have argued for investment in job creation. There are alternatives; the Minister has only to listen. Only a week ago Sinn Féin launched a comprehensive 60-page set of proposals to get the country back to work. At the core of our proposals, which were sent to the Minister, was a €13 billion investment programme over four years that would create an estimated 156,000 jobs and save 15,000 more. We argued that moneys from the National Pension Reserve Fund, the European Investment Bank and the private pensions industry be mobilised to get people back to work. In our proposals, the key drivers for job growth were investment in essential infrastructure, help for small and medium-sized enterprises, the need to exploit the potential of existing and new State enterprises, and investment in the agrifood industry and rural communities.

In the coming weeks we will launch our alternative budget. As in previous years, we will show how the Minister's adjustment targets can be met in a fairer and more growth-friendly way. We will outline the tax and spending measures that would allow the Minister to meet his troika deficit target for 2013 without heaping more pain on low and middle-income families or doing more damage to the domestic economy. Of course hard choices must be made in order to reduce the deficit, but it is possible to meet the deficit reduction targets in a jobs-friendly and growth-friendly way. Unfortunately, when persons in the Opposition have made constructive proposals the Minister has not proved willing to listen. I offer one example. Sinn Féin has proposed that the Minister increase the capacity of the Revenue Commissioners to bring in much-needed tax revenue. We propose an extra €6 million of spending by the Minister to employ 160 extra staff at the Revenue Commissioners, which could increase the tax take by €100 million. This proposal is supported by the Revenue Commissioners, as the Minister is aware. Sinn Féin has made the proposal but the Minister seems unwilling to consider it.

I say again what we have stated many times: we cannot tax our way out of a recession. We must invest in jobs and growth. Talking about jobs does not stimulate growth; only investment will lead to growth. No real economic recovery can take place unless we resolve the ongoing issue of the massive private banking debt Fianna Fáil imposed on this State and its people. Exiting the troika programme at the end of 2013 and returning to the sovereign bond markets requires a deal on both the promissory note and the legacy debt in the pillar banks. Since the Minister took office he has stated that these debts are sustainable and will be paid. He has consistently refused to listen to alternative proposals from the Opposition benches. Yet here, too, his strategy - if he has one - is in tatters. Last September the Minister told us the Department of Finance was engaging with the troika and expected to have an agreed common position on the promissory note by February of this year. More than a year later, no agreed position exists and no common paper has been produced. When Sinn Féin met the troika last week, its representatives were not even sure if a deal on this issue could be reached. They spoke of numerous papers, of which the Government's is only one. The position on the legacy debt is just as bleak. In June the Minister for Finance, the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste all claimed to have secured a deal on legacy debt. They even went as far as to say the details of the deal would be concluded by October of this year. We now know this is not true. The Government failed to tie down any real commitments last June. It failed to get the matter on the agenda of last weekend's summit. In addition, it faces stiff opposition from three of the most important players in the Eurogroup in terms of accessing ESM funds to retrospectively recapitalise the pillar banks.

Just as we need an alternative strategy on jobs, we urgently need a new approach on the debt. The Minister could start by agreeing with his Minister of State, Deputy Brian Hayes, and state publicly that the debt is unsustainable. Then he could do what other European Governments, such as the Spanish Government, have done: start to play hardball, stand up for Irish interests and secure a meaningful deal that lifts the burden of the private banking debt off the shoulders of the State and the people. Unfortunately for the Irish people, this is not the course of action the Government is pursuing. Sinn Féin wants the Government to succeed in resolving this issue but we genuinely believe it is selling the people short.

At some level, the Minister and I share the same objectives. However, we fundamentally differ about the roadmap that will lead us to them. We both want to return to growth, we want people back in work, we want both debt and deficit to fall and we want to undo the damage caused by Deputy Micheál Martin and his colleagues in the last Fianna Fáil Administration. Unfortunately, the Minister appears to be trapped in the same herd mentality that led his predecessors to make so many bad decisions. Like Fianna Fáil before him, the Minister appears unwilling to listen to the alternative proposals put in front of him. As long as he and his Fine Gael and Labour Party colleagues in government remain wedded to the policies of crippling austerity and unlimited bank bailouts, things will get worse. If they want to undo the damage left by the last Fianna Fáil Government they should stop behaving like that Government.

It is time to break free from the herd and start listening to alternatives. It is time to invest in jobs, stimulate growth, reform the tax system and write down the private banking debt.

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