Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise two points, both of which require the Government to develop spine and backbone to speak up for the citizens of the country and citizens elsewhere who are suffering because of the failed policies of the European Union and the failed policies of the major Western powers. The Tánaiste has done everything to demonstrate to Europe that we are the best boys, that we will obey diktats and inflict the most cruel and unjust austerity our citizens.

In return for doing that the Government has got nothing from them. They must be laughing up their sleeves at us. The more we submit to their diktats and accept this cruelly unjust policy of loading the debts of bankers and speculators onto the backs of working people and the vulnerable sectors of our society, the more they keep ramming this injustice and austerity down our throats. The people cannot take any more.

People are demonstrating on the streets today about disability and special needs services. People were on the streets yesterday demonstrating about cuts to services to the elderly. Tens of thousands of people will be on the streets on Saturday next to protest against all the cuts that are being imposed on working people, the unemployed and the vulnerable.

Austerity is not working. The pain is too great. We need to show a bit of backbone. We need to say we are not paying their debts any longer and that we are not paying €9 billion in interest on debts next year. If we did that we would not have a deficit of €15 billion. We would have a deficit of €6 billion and we could fix that by taxing wealth, the corporations and the elites, and get our economy back on track. That is what I suggest we say to them.

What is happening in Gaza? It is depressing in the extreme to hear the Tánaiste recycle the lies of the Israeli Government in explaining how this conflict took off. The Tánaiste referred to the latest round of violence which, he said, was triggered by sustained rocket attacks on towns in Israel. It was not triggered by sustained rocket attacks on Israel. It was triggered on 8 November when a 13 year old Palestinian boy, Ahmad Abu Daqqa was playing football in the fields of Gaza and was killed by the Israelis. That triggered a response. Even after this a truce was agreed by Hamas on 12 November. That truce was broken when Israel launched an attack on 14 November. This is a cynical move by the Israeli Government to get votes in the forthcoming election by killing Palestinians. That is not acceptable.

When are we going to speak up against the rogue state that is Israel and which is crushing the Palestinian people with a siege and with constant military incursions, persecution and oppression?

While the Tánaiste may not accept my view on this I have a letter from the deputy speaker of the Gaza Legislative Council, Dr. Ahmad Bahar. He is asking that a delegation from the Gaza Legislative Council would come to this Parliament between 20 and 24 January next. Would the Government agree to allow a delegation come here so that we can hear the other side of the story, which the world is not hearing, from the elected representatives of the people of Gaza?

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