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

The resulting costs are very clear in Irish society. Despite all the European of the year awards, the backslapping and hugs between leaders at these summits, the Taoiseach is delivering nothing in terms of debt relief and it is becoming increasingly clear that he is not even asking for debt write-downs.

We are getting nothing to deal with the unemployment crisis. The Government's own medium-term fiscal framework tells us that even if the budget projections work out for the next two years, unemployment will only go from the current level of 14.8% to 13% by the end of 2015. That is what the unemployed can look forward to, a 2% reduction in unemployment by the end of 2015. In other words, there will be no end to the economic crisis and in the domestic economy growth will continue to fall. That is nothing to cheer about.

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