Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Caithfidh mé a rá ar dtús go bhfuil mé an-sásta seans a fháil caint anseo. Is maith an rud é go bhfuil an tAire i láthair. D'éist mé leis an méid a dúirt an Teachta English faoin dóchas. Is fear dóchasach mé. Gan dabht, tá mé sásta go mbeimid ábalta ár dtodhchaí a chur le chéile. Níl mé dóchasach ar scor ar bith faoin Rialtas, ach sin scéal eile.

The Central Statistics Office produced new emigration figures which show that 87,000 citizens have moved to Australia, Canada and other parts of the globe. The Minister for Finance once described emigration as a "lifestyle choice" but the real reason people have moved is that there is no work at home. Currently there are 435,000 citizens on the live register and Government policies are making this situation worse, not better. In my own constituency of Louth there were 17,193 people on the live register at the end of September. I welcome today's jobs announcement for Drogheda and my party has been very consistent in that where the Government has delivered, we have commended and acknowledged that. Even though the unemployment figures have been stubbornly consistent, the thing that has kept them from increasing is that old social safety valve beloved of successive governments, namely emigration. I wish to make it clear that emigration is not a solution. It is not a solution to have a whole generation away off in far parts of the globe.

I listened to what Teachta English said about the thousands of home owners who are trapped in negative equity and about the increase in poverty. The Government debt now stands at €160 billion or 120% of GDP. That is unsustainable and a good starting point would be, as I have said many times, to acknowledge that.

The Labour Party and Fine Gael are committed to an austerity strategy. Arguably, Fine Gael would be committed to such a strategy, even if we were not in an economic crisis because that is the nature of right-wing parties.

It is remarkable that despite its criticism of Fianna Fáil, which is justified, the Government has slavishly followed that party's policies. The four year plan produced by Fianna Fáil has been copied by the Government almost down to the last comma and full stop. Domestic demand is on the floor, not least because of a series of punitive measures that have reduced wages, child benefit payments, disability allowances and social welfare payments at the same time as attacking social provisions for carers of older citizens and people with disabilities. A range of stealth taxes have been introduced such as the household charge, the universal social charge, VAT increases and septic tank fees.

The problems cannot be boiled down to economics because we must also consider the social consequences of the Government's austerity programme. Government Deputies will be aware that the elderly have been hit by the closure of public nursing homes and the slashing of home help hours. I met senior citizens from the Older and Bolder organisation who were lobbying for an immediate reversal of the cuts to home help hours and home care packages. What the public cannot accept is the way in which money is always made available for the big people, the bankers and unsecured bondholders but not for the small people. Even the IMF now acknowledges that austerity is not working. The Government has to get real because it cannot cut its way out of a recession.

Sinn Féin will be bringing forward a fully costed alternative budget which sets out our view on how the deficit should be closed. We have done so every year since the crisis began. We also produced an alternative job creation strategy which I shared with the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance. I am glad to find that Deputy Damien English read our strategy, although I do not know if the Minister for Finance has done so. Our detailed plan sets out a socially responsible method for reducing the budget deficit, while creating and retaining jobs. We call for an investment of €13 billion in job creation and retention measures. The money is available from the National Pensions Reserve Fund, the European Investment Bank and the private pension sector. It not rocket science. We would build 100 schools and refurbish a further 75 in the next three years, establish 50 new primary health care centres at appropriate locations rather than according to ministerial patronage, develop a €1 billion investment programme in sustainable wind and wave power project and invest in the roll-out of next generation broadband across the State. People in rural parts of County Louth cannot get access to broadband services. The State ranks 17th out of 27 in European league tables for broadband access. I invite the Government to take some of these ideas on board.

I do not agree with those who say we have no options. We always have choices. Instead of investing in stimulating job creation, the Government has chosen to fritter away the National Pensions Reserve Fund on bank bailouts and payments to unsecured bondholders. Backbench Deputies can protest all they want, but that is what happened.

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