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

Often, this debate is set in polarised ideological terms. I suspect that much of the Government's support for this policy approach is not just due to demands by the troika that this be done, as the Government sometimes suggests. Ideologically, the Government agrees with the troika that the private market is the only means of generating jobs. This viewpoint is captured in the mantra that governments do not create jobs - they only create the conditions for jobs to be created by the private sector. This is a false perspective.

Certain sectors have considerable amounts of capital, yet their confidence is dropping and they made it clear in advance of the Davos summit that they would not invest in Europe significantly. In this light, the only driver for investment that can give confidence to the wider economy and to the private sector that the Government holds so dear is the State. This is evident at the most basic level.

In Dún Laoghaire town, which is where I am from, the two largest employers are the local authority and the hospital. The Government's policies are to cut the number of people working in both. Does the Minister of State, Deputy O'Dowd, believe that doing so will help the town's small businesses? It will do the opposite.

The private sector is not the real driver. As the Government cuts back on the public sector, it further crushes the private sector. It is doing so because of its ideological predisposition as well as the troika's demands. The troika also holds this view. I have met it three times. The troika made it clear that it was encouraging the Government to be ambitious in the area of privatisation and to cut the level of public expenditure. This is the troika's ideological predisposition and is probably assisted by the fact that the greatest influences on the troika, including the IMF, are large multinational interests that, as the public sector is cut back, see opportunities opening to capture markets and services that were previously provided by the public sector.

This is summed up when, while driving in my car, I listen to radio advertisements by the Blackrock Clinic reminding people about the availability of its accident and emergency care. The message is clear, in that people should attend the Blackrock Clinic where they will pay private medical providers instead of waiting for 24 hours, 36 hours or longer at St. Vincent's Hospital down the road. This is the current equation. The advantage that might accrue to the private medical health provider damages the wider economy. Obviously, it damages the public health system. The cuts being imposed on St. Vincent's, St. Michael's and other public hospitals or public employers are crucifying the SMEs in their areas. This situation is evident across the European economy.

The Greek loan facility is a disaster for the Greek people. It is not a helping hand or a relief. Rather, it is a tighter death grip of austerity. It is a failed model that is being repeated and intensified. The last thing we need is anything even remotely like it. We must say that we will not pay other people's gambling debts. We must demand the right to use the money that we have invested in the banks as well as the €9.1 billion that is planned to be paid in debt interest this year to invest in infrastructure and enterprise in order to restore employment and generate real economic wealth. The Government should have the courage to do this and to recognise the failure of the policies that have been pursued for the past four years.

We do not want to take Greece's disastrous road, although we have already gone well down it. Is it not time to realise that the last thing we need is to go any further? We must radically shift policy, focus on jobs, growth, young people and the education system, promote our talent and invest in the people of this country, who constitute its real resource, to help us chart a way out of the economic crisis.

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