Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Government has ordered the business here to celebrate three years in government and there is no substantive debate on how it intends to continue for the next two years because there has been no detail put forward. I note there were 16 pages from the Taoiseach, 11 pages from the Tánaiste but in the middle of all the verbiage there are two little gems. From the Taoiseach, there is an acknowledgement: "There is still an unacceptable number of people unemployed. There are still far too many working families struggling to make ends meet. Sin é - that is it." From the Tánaiste, there is much of the same: "Too many families in this country are ... under severe financial strain, living from day to day or from week to week." The reason for that must be clear. It is called austerity, and that is the clear policy choice of the Government because it has patently refused to invest properly in job creation.

Today is about the Government going out and holding a press conference, and coming in here to sing its own praises. In the past number of years, perhaps many citizens have become used to these songs of self-praise. For example, at the June 2012 European summit, the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste were in close harmony, in full chorus, declaring a game changer and a seismic shift. Having given the banks €65 billion of the taxpayers' money, they claimed that the European Stability Mechanism would reduce debt. They stated it would separate banking debt from sovereign debt. They stated that this would be retrospective and that hard-working hard-pressed citizens in the State would get some of their money back. Of course, none of that has happened. The Fine Gael-Labour Government secured nothing to relieve citizens of this odious banking debt. For generations to come, citizens will be forced to carry an unsustainable debt burden inflicted on us because the Government has persisted, for ideological reasons, in blindly pursuing the destructive austerity agenda, and all of this has been done to bail out banks that caused the crisis in the first place. Mar a deirtear i nGaeilge, is cuma le fear na mbróg cá leagann sé a chos.

That is fair enough from Fine Gael because it would be a party of austerity. Even if there had not been the crisis, Fine Gael would be pursuing these type of policies in any case. However, Labour sets itself out as a different type of political party. There is much the Tánaiste stated in his opening remarks with which I could agree about the type of Ireland we want to see, but, unfortunately, there is no plan, strategy or will to bring this about.

When the troika left and the Government also sang its own praises in December, the troika mindset stayed. There has been a litany of broken election promises from both Government parties. The Government promised a strategic investment bank. They promised the end of upward-only rents. They said they would not cut child benefit. They said they would not cut supports for those citizens with disabilities. They said a lot, but instead delivered cuts to living standards and vital public services; cuts to supports for persons with disabilities; 140,000 householders in mortgage distress; homelessness on the increase; a crumbling health service; a family home tax; and water charges.

I spent last evening on the Cooley Peninsula. There is a unprecedented level of isolation and fear in rural areas where many are concerned about the closure of Garda stations, post offices and schools, and the destruction of public transport systems. All the while, and this is where the needle gets into people, they see public money being given hand over fist to consultants, investors, bankers and politicians while there is not funding and supports for those who are vulnerable, such as the young unemployed, pensioners and children with a disability. There is the farce, a term I use advisedly, over very ill patients having their medical cards withdrawn. In the past year, 60,000 patients were waiting on hospital trolleys. The wages and conditions of Irish workers are steadily being driven down.

People are cynical because, while all of this is going on, politicians still claim significant wages and expenses, and the gap between rich and poor has become wider and society has become more polarised. Most citizens understand that we have faced an unprecedented crisis and want to play their part in rectifying this, but what they resent is the unfair way in which this is being done by the Government. Tá an ciorcal órga faoi chosaint agus tá gnáthdhaoine faoin ionsaí. Ordinary, hardworking citizens, the most vulnerable sectors of society, and those who worked hard, paid taxes and did all the right things who face retirement, discover that they are again being forced to carry the burden of adjustment. People who never saw the Celtic tiger, once again, are being oppressed, while those at the top come through unscathed because the mark of the Government is to preserve the privilege and wealth of the elites while not looking after those citizens around which society should wrap itself.

The Taoiseach and the Tánaiste mentioned fairness quite a few times in their remarks, but unfairness has been the hallmark of their term of office so far. They promised to transform the political culture in the State and to end cronyism, but we have seen the recycled same old failed politics and the same old way of doing business. Rather than open up government, as they promised, the Government actively obstructed the Dáil by concealing its knowledge on the expenditure involved in the establishment of Irish Water-Uisce Éireann and in the farce surrounding the Minister for Justice and Equality. Even in his Ard-Fheis speech, the Taoiseach spoke of the serious allegations involving the administration of justice and oversight of the Garda.

What we have had all of the time - I am a newcomer here - is first call to the media and second or third call to this Chamber. It has been government by press release, spin and hype, while actively and regularly bypassing this Dáil on issues of importance.

It is also evident in the old way of doing business the manner in which the Government continues to breach pay caps for ministerial advisers while cutting supports for the most vulnerable citizens. Many of these decisions are taken at Cabinet level. I do not even know why the Government keeps saying, "This was a Cabinet decision". The decide to cut home help hours and carer's allowance. This is a group of people sitting around a table deciding to take money and resources from those who depend upon it most.

There has also been an effort to centralise political power and emasculate local democracy. One of the telling marks here - both the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste have much more Gaeilge than I have, as they were reared in a different environment - has been the increase in the marginalisation of the Irish language in the public administration system. Actions of the Government have ensured that language schemes by public bodies have been poorly devised and inadequately implemented. The decision to merge the Office of An Coimisinéir Teanga with the Office of the Ombudsman, and the insufficient resources provided, is evidence of the Government's disregard for the Irish language. The resignation of An Coimisinéir Teanga, Seán Ó Cuirreáin, over the failure to provide services through Irish is a damning indictment of Fine Gael and Labour.

There has also been an ongoing spin of recent jobs figures as demonstrating growth. All jobs are welcome and everybody is glad to see the unemployed back at work, but there is a number of matters revealed which the Government does not want to see highlighted. Some of the greatest increases have been in the lowest paid sectors of the economy. Emigration is also playing a significant part in the reduction of the unemployment figures. Since 2011, 266,000 people have left the State, and only 28,100 jobs have been created. Since the Government came to power there are 40,000 fewer under the age of 35 in work and 85,000 fewer in the labour market, and while some may have returned to study, the majority of the 85,000 have left.

In the past two years there has been a marked increase in the number of workers with variable hours. These are workers who have a minimum number of hours but no set income or set hours week-to-week. What is very clear is that rather than emancipation of workers there has been a casualisation of labour and an erosion of workers rights.

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