Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group) | Oireachtas source

In 2016, we will commemorate the 1916 Rising and the execution of James Connolly who was as opposed to the capitalist system as I am. Like him, I have no confidence in the rich and political parties they fund to resolve the current crisis in the interest of the Irish people. In Connolly's time, the rules of capitalism were relatively simple, namely, if the wealthy invested wisely they made money; if they made bad investments they lost money. Now we have a Single Market and the wealthy can invest throughout Europe without any barriers. Reagan and Thatcher boasted that capitalism had gotten a new lease of life and that the market was king and would resolve all problems. Due to the God-like properties of the market, only light touch regulation was necessary. In Ireland, former Deputies Mary Harney, Michael McDowell and Charlie McCreevy took up the mantra and former Deputy Bertie Ahern traipsed after them. Privatisation was in and State enterprise was out. State involvement in business was bad and an intrusion. There was no opposition to this from Fine Gael or the Labour Party. This so-called revived capitalism would reward success and punish failure, making us all more efficient and competitive.

Then came the bust and the great apostles of the free enterprise were on their knees to the previously despised State to intervene urgently in the banking business to save their bacon. The market could not be allowed to punish its failure. The rules of capitalism are always changed to suit the wealthy. While profits had been privatised through low taxes on business the debts were now to be nationalised to protect the rich and afflict the common people. Pensioners with a little nest egg in bank shares were wiped out while large investors who invested through bonds and other big money instruments were bailed out. The bulk of this large investment came through banks and finance houses outside this State and the vast majority of those being bailed out by Irish citizens were not Irish.

James Connolly was correct when he said that the capitalists, the ranchers and their hangers-on in the labour movement cannot be trusted with Irish sovereignty and the well-being of the Irish people. Paying the promissory notes is not only a massive drain on Irish resources, it is an act of national betrayal. The €64 billion borrowed by Ireland owing to the banking collapse was used to rescue investments of mainly European banks and finance houses. This debt should be the debt of the entire European financial system and should be neutralised. Anything less than this is a betrayal of Irish sovereignty and will merely transfer part of the European-wide debt onto the shoulders of generations of Irish people while European bondholders laugh all their way to German, French and British banks, where were and are being bailed out by the Irish people.

Government spending between 2008 and 2012 resulted in an increase in debt, from €2 billion to €6.5 billion. This will rise to €8.1 billion in 2013. Money borrowed to cover the debts of private banks should not be repaid. A considerable portion of the debt interest payment arises from this source. Interest on capital repayments will make debt servicing a crushing burden over decades on our children and grandchildren. The ESM made matters worse. An additional €4.5 billion will have to be paid every year from 2015. Any illusory savings through extension of the repayment period on bank debt and replacement of the promissory notes with a long dated bond will be drawfed by these crushing repayments. This Government's austerity policy will ensure that there is no significant growth to ease the burden. The EU must be forced to agree to declare the bank related debt of all countries in proportion to their GDP a burden. It should be neutralised.

This country is in social and economic crisis. The policies of this Government are damaging ordinary people and their families. We have our own Margaret Thatcher here in the form of Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, who is the cause of the same widespread despair and hopelessness in this country as caused by Thatcher in Britain. Children are cold and hungry at school and more are living in poverty. The Minister's attacks on children are surpassed only by her attacks on the elderly. Just like Margaret Thatcher she is dismantling all the benefits that made life bearable for the elderly. The vulnerable, young and old, are being targeted while bankers and bondholders get off scot free. Stopping the repayment of the promissory notes is a first step in the reconquest of Ireland for the people.

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