Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Mathews suggested that Members should vote for the Bill under protest. A far more effective protest would be to vote against it. It is clear that the hierarchy throughout Europe is not listening to the damage and devastation the continuation of its policies continues to mete out to ordinary people on whose shoulders the burden rests. We refer to the loan facility as the bailout for Greece, but as other Deputies have pointed out, this is about the continuation of bailouts for banks and a process that has seen Greece stripped, raped and pillaged in a manner slightly different but where the effect is the same in this country. It takes the biscuit to dress it up, as some Deputies have done, as a benevolent act to help the Greeks. It adds insult to injury. What is at issue in the debate is the ratification of a continuation of policies that have brought Greece to its knees but have done enormous damage throughout the economies in the rest of the eurozone as well.

We must take time to examine in detail where such policies have already brought Greece. At the end of last year the Greek economy had experienced five years of recession and three years of unprecedented austerity meted out to its people. One could ask what it was all for, and whether the policies succeeded in transforming the Greek economy. One could say, yes they certainly did, if one’s definition of transformation is throwing a society backwards, pauperising a generation and leaving young people with the prospect of being poorer than their parents for the first time in decades.

Official statistics reveal that one in every three Greek people live below the poverty line. That is a phenomenal figure. Deputy Donnelly referred to the unemployment figures, which officially indicate a quarter of the population is unemployed. However, in truth it is nearer to being 30% to 35% unemployment. Youth unemployment is significantly more than that, at in excess of 50%. Unemployment among women is 30%. What an indictment of neoliberal policies that the talent and creativity of ordinary people, especially young people, is being left to rot while many necessary and important social functions and tasks that could be undertaken are not being done because they are being sacrificed on the altar of deregulation, privatisation and a conscious rowing back of the gains in the welfare state that had become the norm in post-war Europe.

What the Bill offers as a solution is more of the same. The Greek Government passed a budget with another austerity cutback of €9.4 billion to be taken out of the economy this year in return for €44 billion of a so-called bailout. That is not money for nothing. The terms of the bailout might be slightly reduced in the Bill but the money will not benefit any ordinary person or public services in Greece. The money is being borrowed to repay existing debts. Let us examine the scale of the con that is being undertaken. Further borrowings are being put on the shoulders of the Greek people to pay existing debts. In return for getting the money to pay a debt that was not generated by ordinary people the Greek people have to pay in further austerity. That sounds familiar, as we are used to it in this country as well

The adjustment this year and next year to which the government has signed up will mean further cuts in public sector wages and pensions and in health and education. In some sectors of the health service workers have not been paid for six months. They have not received a wage in six months but they are still going into work in the hope that the situation might turn around or they might be taken on by a private hospital. Sick people, including pensioners, cannot get basic medication. It is a cataclysmic collapse of the economy. There are stories in all of the international newspapers about the devastation people are experiencing. One could ask what is the logic of such economics. In the final quarter of last year, GDP in Greece fell by more than 7%. The decline is not halting either; it is getting worse. Whatever about enduring such conditions if one thought it would result in things getting better, the idea of doing it and paying such a price in order to enrich those at the top who caused the problem in the first place is lunacy.

I salute the Greek population in its struggle against that type of madness where we have seen the cumulative shrinkage and collapse of the economy by more than 25% in recent years. The proposition before the House is about a society going backwards. Sometimes one must call a halt. Austerity is not working. There cannot be an economic recovery for the people of Greece or those in the rest of Europe if we continue with those policies. We could be in the House all night describing what is going on in Greece. Homelessness has rocketed. A total of 40,000 people are currently homeless in Athens. The figures are unbelievable and are multiplying. We have referred to the increase in suicide and to people putting their children in orphanages because they cannot look after them. The Greek Government’s solution is to impose further punitive taxation on its population. It is clear that there is a link somewhere and that the Government must have sat in and took a few notes. It should take further notes as well. The property tax in Greece has caused enormous hardship. One power company has disconnected the electricity of 30,000 homes per day as a result of enormous bills, a large part of which was due to the fact that the property tax is collected by the electricity company. What a draconian scenario. Many of those who were cut off have stayed disconnected because people do not have the money. The Government should draw the conclusion that one cannot get blood from a stone. One can bring in any amount of draconian legislation but if people do not have money then they cannot pay. The Government should take note.

The briefing paper for the Bill suggests that its purpose is to facilitate in the public interest the financial stability of the EU. That is rubbish. It is not for that purpose at all. Its purpose is to back up the private interest of big business and the banking system throughout the EU. Let us call a spade, a spade. That is what it is about. A total of 17 countries in the eurozone ended up in a double-dip recession last year. The Bill has nothing to do with benefitting ordinary people; it is about the continuation of neoliberal capitalism, which is not benefitting the common good but is about backing up the interests of a minority.

I do not have time to deal with the Irish debt situation to which other Deputies have referred, but the fact that we too are shouldering such a massive burden of bank debt, far in excess of any other country in Europe, must be taken on board by the Government. It is clear that is not the case. The problem will continue as long as we look at things the wrong way around. There cannot be any recovery based on the type of policies being put forward in the Bill for this country or for Greece. We should start the other way around. Rather than reducing the terms of the debt we must focus on walking away from repaying debts that will not be repaid.

If countries can borrow to repay debt for private banks, why can they not borrow to invest in jobs, job creation and a programme of public works? The only way the situation will be turned around is through stimulus, investment and putting people back to work. There cannot be a turnaround without a break of the existing system, not only in Greece but throughout Europe. It is clear from the catastrophe in Greece that the circumstances unfolding in Ireland and in many countries in southern Europe are not very different. The only way we will get out of this situation is by banding together across national frontiers to put the interests of ordinary people ahead of those of the private banks and big business.

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