Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The most notable measures taken by the Government have been massive and crippling cuts in health, education and social welfare. The cruel cutbacks in the number of home help hours and health care packages show the most brutal side of the Government's austerity measures. These services have been cut to the bare minimum. The proposed cutbacks in the 2013 budget are not only a massive insult to some of our most vulnerable citizens but will also place lives at risk. The House recently debated how cuts in home care were affecting families. We heard, for example, that some helps were being given 15 minutes to complete home visits. I do not know how one could dress or help an elderly or vulnerable person in such a short time, but perhaps a Government Deputy with more experience in this area than I will explain how it can be done. All the home helps with whom I have spoken are extremely concerned about how the proposed cuts will affect them.

The Irish League of Credit Unions recently published its latest "What's Left" income tracker which shows that 1.3 million adults only have €50 to spend after paying essential bills each month. Many families are in difficulty, yet approximately €20 billion has been given to the banks on the Government's watch. Workers' hard-earned tax money is being spent on bailing out banks and paying a private debt they did not create or want to have placed on their shoulders. Many still do not understand how private debt was transformed into taxpayers' debt because no explanation has been provided for how this scenario came about.

The Government's procrastination over securing a deal on the debt is hurting ordinary families and households.

One of the most important jobs for the Government is to ensure private banking debt does not continue to impoverish taxpayers. We need a deal on our debt very soon, not rhetoric or unclear statements from EU leaders. We need proactive measures coming from Europe. We need a real deal that will make a difference to struggling workers and their families across Europe.

The Government must also create a stimulus package for the economy which will create jobs and facilitate investment. There must be an increase in the jobs stimulus package around Europe because it is not enough. If those leaders were focused on what is happening in their own countries they would realise that the jobs stimulus package is not working. Unemployment and emigration are at levels not seen for decades. The old policies and the old approaches are not working. New thinking, new policies and a new economic programme are required.

There are 435,000 people on the live register. That is unacceptable. The figure would be even higher but 87,000 people emigrated from Ireland last year alone. That is nine people every hour for 2011.

Sinn Féin recently released its jobs document which contains a suggested €13 billion stimulus, a jobs retention fund and a series of other measures to assist young people, assist struggling businesses, foster entrepreneurs, grow local enterprises and co-operatives, the use of State assets for job creation, rejuvenate the State enterprise sector and support the agri-food sector. This €13 billion stimulus would create an average of 156,000 immediate and long-term jobs, according to the ESRI. It would be funded from €5.8 billion in discretionary funding in the National Pensions Reserve Fund, €1.534 billion from the European Investment Bank, €3 billion in incentivised investment from the private pensions sector, and we would not cut the €2.6 billion the Government will cut from its capital budget programme.

On a political and practical level the austerity policies being pursued by the Government and the troika have failed the economy and they are failing across the European Union. Sinn Féin has raised the stimulus proposals with the troika. It has said it has not opposed the stimulus. In fact, increasingly, it appreciates the need for it. Its concern is around the way it is funded. It would rather the State spent resources on writing down our debt but it has not ruled it out, and realpolitik must rule it in. I do not envisage this stimulus being an issue with the troika as every report shows its austerity approach is not working to recover our economy. The irony is that it saw the need for it before the Government.

Every sensible economist in the world is pointing to the need for European economies to grow, not contract. We cannot have growth through contraction. We do not need to ask the economists but it is clear that we need jobs in this state. We have a well qualified and hard-working workforce which is the envy of many countries, yet the Government is standing over an unemployment rate of nearly 15%, with long-term unemployment at a shocking 60%. If the jobless numbers are allowed to grow revenue will continue to decline and social welfare will continue to rise. Unemployment paralyses an economy. According to the Government figures each person who is unemployed costs the State in the region of €20,000 directly through money lost in PAYE and social welfare costs.

In addition to the impact on tax and welfare, fewer people working is fewer people spending in the economy and fewer people paying their mortgages. It is a recipe for emigration, poverty, social inequality and rising crime. We must get people back to work, and what I am hearing is that jobs are people's major concern. The Government is failing to deal with that problem. We do not see any clear vision in regard to that entire area. That failure to manage the economy, plan for challenges ahead and properly regulate has left us where we are today, with so many people emigrating.

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