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

The European Commission, in its recent review of our circumstances, suggested that if growth, particularly that in the domestic economy, continues to remain poor and does not rise to the desired level and if the issue of chronic mass long-term unemployment is not dealt with, there is a real danger that our debt will become unsustainable. The rating agencies consider our debt to be junk. Most important, we will have to pay €9.1 billion this year in interest on our enormous and clearly unsustainable debt, at a terrible cost to the citizens of the country. It is the equivalent of the whole education budget being paid in interest on debt.

Will Ireland's EU Presidency just be a load of pomp and ceremony signifying nothing? Alternatively, will it be used as a platform and pressure point to obtain fairness and sustainability and relief for ordinary Irish citizens from the absolutely intolerable and unsustainable burden? Can the Minister give us concrete reasons to hope that, by the end of the Presidency, we will obtain the relief we deserve and desperately need if the economy has any chance whatsoever of recovering? Can the Minister give us concrete assurances or outline plans that could lead us to believe this might be the case?

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