Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

Ministers are immunised in their cosy little club in here but they do not actually know what is going on outside these doors.

If they did, they would realise that to take away mortgage interest supplement when so many families are about to lose their homes is lunacy. Unfortunately we do not have much time but it is ironic that the Government can come here some evening and change the law overnight, keep us here until the early hours to deal with a new burden on the taxpayer, but cannot bring in any measures to deal with the wealthy. The Government cannot tackle a small wealth tax that would allow it to cancel the home tax. It could not bring in a 1.5% increase on the top 10% of earners which would yield an extra €400 million. It deals with some aspects on the pension but not the whole lot of it. The Government will be judged by how many people are at work and on that it will flounder because there can be no economic recovery without job creation. That cannot be left to the private sector. Only a State-led programme will do it and the Government has failed terribly.

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