Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

The McKinsey Global Institute has pointed out that there was a catastrophic 15% fall in private investment in the European Union from 2007 to 2012. In the course of the past year the international financial press, including the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times, for example, has pointed to a vast hoarding of profits, amounting to some €3 billion on a total EU-wide basis, by big business which is essentially refusing to invest because of a belief it will not make sufficient profits for boardrooms and investors. In view of this paralysis or semi-paralysis of European capitalisation, how can the Tánaiste justify particularly sharp cuts in the EU budget when a significant increase in public investment is what is needed? Is it not clear that the millions of young unemployed people cannot rely on private or big business to secure their future? Is it not the case that in the public good the State and public enterprise should provide the resources, investment and jobs needed? Therefore, the Government has failed the young people of Europe. How can the Tánaiste justify continued significant funding for the European armaments industry for research into developing even more horrific weapons of mass destruction in view of the social funding that is so desperately needed?

See this speech in context