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

On a positive note, we need more of that sort of people power. We need people to take to the streets and say that austerity is not working, that we want a fairer policy where the bondholders and speculators pay the price for their crimes so that the rest of society can flourish and develop and that we can focus on creating jobs.

For the past five years, Europe's policy has been to say we must have specific targets on deficit and debt reduction. That has not worked very well. As a positive alternative, I suggest specific targets for the reduction of unemployment. For example, if it is 14% this year, the Government should have a target of 10% next year, 5% the year after that and 0% unemployment the following year. Starting policy consideration from that perspective would lead to us being in a far better place.

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