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

This group of questions asks the Taoiseach to report on his discussions with his fellow leaders of the European Union member states. Has the Taoiseach or his fellow EU leaders any appreciation of the increasingly harsh reality of life for huge swathes of ordinary working people in Europe, unemployed people and poor people, as a result of the continuing crisis of European capitalism and the austerity policy response by governments all over Europe, the so-called cure that is worsening the disease? At the recent EU summit a few weeks ago, as leaders meet behind swathes of security and police to protect them from the people of Europe whom they are supposed to represent, did anyone in that elite bubble of EU leaders look outside that bubble and raise the devastating report of the International Red Cross on the economic and social effects of the crisis of austerity? Does it shock the Taoiseach in any way to hear the findings of this organisation, which are sober and conservative and which The Guardian newspaper sums up as Europe sinking into a protracted period of deepening poverty, mass unemployment, social exclusion, greater inequality and collective despair, as a result of austerity policies adopted in response to the debt and currency crisis and that while other continents successfully reduce poverty, Europe adds to it?

Does it shock the Taoiseach that, compared to 2009, millions more find themselves queueing for food, unable to buy medicine or access health care? Those without a job and many who still have work, are finding it difficult to sustain their families due to insufficient wages and sky-rocketing prices.

Does it shock the Taoiseach that the International Red Cross report concludes that five years ago it would have been unimaginable that so many millions of Europeans would be lining up for food in soup kitchens and receiving food parcels at home? Former middle-class citizens are living in trailers, tents, railway stations or in shelters for the homeless, and are hesitating to go to the International Red Cross. The report concludes that there are now more than 18 million people receiving EU-funded food aid, that 43 million people do not get enough to eat each day and 120 million people are at risk of poverty in the countries covered by EUROSTAT. Is this not truly shocking? Lest anyone believes the German workers are immune, the International Red Cross finds that in the past decade 5.5 million Germans have lost their middle class social status and have fallen into the ranks of low-income earners, while at the same time, half a million others made the grade as high-income earners. Is it not clear that the Taoiseach and his fellow European leaders have presided and continue to preside over a policy that is disastrous in its social and economic effects? Does the Taoiseach recognise this Europe? Does it ever feature in the meetings of the EU leaders? Does he understand that he is an integral part of the policy that is pushing millions to soup kitchens within Europe? This was the scene described in what we used to refer to as the Third World, but this is Europe. Is it not clear, therefore, that the financial market system, this dictatorship of the one per cent, the bondholders, the massive big banks, is a disaster for our people and that revolutionary changes in economic policy are needed to break this power of those who hold Europe in this vicious grip that is causing this horrific situation? Is it not clear that public ownership of this huge wealth of the financial institutions in democratic control, is necessary? I ask the Taoiseach if he is ashamed of the Europe he and his fellow leaders have created.

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