Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group) | Oireachtas source

-----hundreds of thousands of jobs will be created.”

The opposite has actually happened. This Government simply took over the policies of the previous Fianna Fáil-Green Government, lock, stock and barrel. The Government’s economic policy has absolutely failed, destroying jobs both in the private and public sectors. It is most certainly Frankfurt’s way, not Labour’s, as we tip our hats to the robber barons of Europe. The Taoiseach is to receive a special award from a German business group for being a good European. With the Government’s satisfaction rating in recent polls, the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste would certainly not make the greatest Irish person of the year.

This Government is a job destruction Administration. Central Statistics Office, CSO, figures – in other words Government figures – show a complete failure in its job creation policy. In the past 12 months of the Government’s tenure, 33,400 net jobs have been lost, meaning there has been a decrease in the number of jobs in the economy. The Government is clearly operating a jobs-destruction policy with 10,000 jobs lost in the private sector while 20,500 public service jobs have been eliminated, mainly in front-line positions such as nursing and policing. Unemployment has increased and emigration continues unabated. Based on the Quarterly National Household Survey, the CSO estimates the excess of emigrants over immigrants is approximately 37,000 with 70,000 people leaving the country each year. Without emigration, unemployment would have reached even more horrendous proportions than it has. Six out of ten unemployed persons are classified as long-term unemployed, meaning they have been out of work for over 12 months.

The blanket bank guarantee and the agreement with the troika was an act of national treachery by the previous Fianna Fáil-Green Government. Continuing it is another act of treachery by the Fine Gael-Labour Government. Billions in Irish money is paid out to big European banks and international investors to bail out the European financial system. Since the Government came to power, it has paid €20 billion to banks and bondholders which it claimed before coming into office it would not do.

The truth is Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Greens and the Labour Party have another agenda, one that protects the super-rich while making low and middle-income earners pay the bank debts. The people are being played for fools, not just by Angela Merkel but by the Government as well. The fact interest payments of €7 billion a year will leave the State coffers shows the Government is carrying out the policies of the bagmen for the European banks, the troika. Up to €25 billion has been taken out of the economy over the past several years without any serious decrease in the deficit.

Austerity is simply not working and will have to be changed, a widespread view and one accepted by many including the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU, and Social Justice Ireland. Jack O’Connor, president of SIPTU, the Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union, has accused the troika of sabotaging Ireland’s chances of recovering from the economic crisis by insisting on sticking to a strategy which has failed spectacularly in Ireland and across Europe, piling misery on working people and their families. Even the International Monetary Fund, IMF, has now accepted its cuts are deeply damaging to the Irish economy. It initially suggested that every euro taken out the economy would take another 50 cent out but now accepts it could be as high as €1.50. The European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, László Andor, has said that too much austerity is being prescribed in the current crisis and a better way must be found to ensure growth. Not just nationally but across Europe, it is accepted austerity is simply not working and will have to be changed.

What has this austerity done to families here? There are very many people going hungry. Caroline Carney, the General Council of the Bar of England and Wales, and Bertrand Maitre, the Economic and Social Research Institute, have shown that more than 10% of families experienced food poverty in 2012.

The austerity visited on the country since the Government came into power has surely added to the impact of existing austerity measures. There have been various other reports, including one from the Irish League of Credit Unions. Another from the Central Statistics Office stated more than 200,000 children in the country were living in poverty, some 500 children were homeless and 35% of lone parent families were living in relative or consistent poverty. It is time to state clearly that reaching the deficit target set by the troika represents absolute failure, not success. We must stop the collusion with what are effectively European robber barons. To paraphrase the words of James Connolly, it is time for the reconquest of Ireland by the people. To do this we must change what is happening and change the economic policy of the Government. The British landlords of old have been replaced by European finance houses. Unfortunately, the Government is acting as their agent and bailiff.

Several things need to be done. We need to stop the austerity measures and targeting low and middle income families. We must also stop the repayments. The repayments on the outstanding bonds and promissory notes are to meet private, not public, debts, for which the people have no responsibility. We must tax the assets of the super-rich. I heard it said yesterday morning and again this morning during Leaders' Questions that everyone was challenged by the current situation. That is not the case. A small proportion, approximately 5%, the wealthiest people in the country, do not pay their fair share. A wealth tax should be introduced to ensure they do. A wealth tax is an accepted form of taxation throughout the globe. We need a large-scale job creation programme overseen by the Government rather than private industry or individuals since such efforts have failed. We also need to stop making cuts to public services and benefits.

See this speech in context