Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The problem is that those policies are not working across Europe. That is the point. They are simply not working. Millions of people across Europe are unemployed and the levels of unemployment across the main European economies are unprecedented. Commentators from the IMF, Paul Krugman, the economist, and other distinguished statespeople have identified part of the problem as simply being that Europe has followed but one model, which essentially is that fiscal consolidation is the route to economic growth across Europe and nothing else, but that it is not working and will not work. When I asked the Taoiseach did he believe there should be a radical rethink, I was not talking about abstract economic theories or anything like that. Clearly, he does not believe there is a need for a radical rethink, rather he believes that existing decisions should simply be followed through on. I put to him that the budget that was just under discussion will for the first time represent a cut at a time when Europe needed some sort of stimulus. The European leaders came together and conspired to cut the European budget, which already is about 1% of GNP across Europe. That made no sense.

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