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

As the Minister is well aware, I am implacably opposed to this new Croke Park deal in so far as it requires further sacrifices from low and middle-income workers. Following from Deputy Sean Fleming's point about the net savings the Government hopes to make, the Minister mentioned macro-economic variables. If I understand it correctly, he said that the Government will carry out further analysis with the Department of Finance in respect of those. That seems a rather bizarre way to proceed. We make the cuts before we have analysed what the impact might be on the wider economy. That leaves open the likelihood that we are cutting off our nose to spite our face. Many of those of us who have opposed austerity have suggested that by cutting the incomes of low and middle-income workers, the Government is reducing spending power and demand in the economy and doing further damage to other sectors of the economy.

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