Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I live in the real world. I meet these people every day. The latest figures also show that workers' average weekly earnings were down 2.1% in the last year for which figures are available. With inflation running at 0.8%, there is less money in the pockets of workers, and that is before they pay the new water and family home taxes. Jobs growth has been heavily concentrated in large urban centres. Unemployment in the Border region has increased and is well above the State average. Much more needs to be done to realise the full potential of the all-Ireland economy and to tackle the barriers to jobs and growth in the Border region. This should include an all-Ireland approach to trade and the marketing of Irish products, and the establishment of a Border development zone.

The programme for Government commits to the full implementation of the Good Friday and St. Andrew’s Agreements. As well as trying to get the British Government to fulfil its obligation, which is a difficult challenge, there needs to be a forensic ongoing approach by the Government to all of these issues. As a joint guarantor - not a junior partner - the Government needs to ensure the implementation of all key parts of the agreements, such as an Irish Language Bill, Acht na Gaeilge, a bill of rights, an all-Ireland consultative forum and an all-Ireland charter of rights. As I have often said here, not one comma of the Good Friday Agreement has been incorporated into any of the workings of the institutions of the State or the protocols by which we are governed. There is also a need for the Government to be totally and absolutely unambiguously focused on the full implementation of the proposals from Richard Haass and Megan O'Sullivan. The recent brouhaha over the so-called OTRs provides ample proof of the need for the type of approach that we have long advocated.

The Government has also failed to keep the British Government to its commitment to secure an inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane or to get London to co-operate with the Oireachtas motion on the Dublin-Monaghan bombings. It has failed to advocate for a border poll. If it does not want a border poll, that is fair enough, but it is part of the Good Friday Agreement.

The Taoiseach never mentioned the North at the Fine Gael Ard-Fheis last weekend; neither did the Tánaiste at his party's conference. The plan to amalgamate the Irish Human Rights Commission and the Equality Authority is totally in breach of the agreement. The Government has also failed to give the Irish Human Rights Commission the same powers that the equivalent body has in the North. The same applies to the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland and the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission. The Government has even brought forward legislation in relation to taxi licences which completely undermines the provisions of the Good Friday Agreement for former political prisoners with regard to employment rights. The Government was informed of that but it ploughed ahead.

Although the programme for Government commits to "publishing and acting on the recommendations of the first Review of the North-South Implementation Bodies and Areas for Co-operation and to progress the second Review, which will [identify] new areas for North South co-operation", this has not happened and the review has not been concluded. The Government has cut funding to the A5 Derry-Dublin road and failed to support the Narrow Water bridge project. When I raised this issue with the Taoiseach I said that if he wanted to make this happen it would happen. The Government constantly says it does not have a choice in the policies it implements. This is not true. We all have choices. Sinn Féin knows about difficult choices. We understand the art of compromise. Politics is all about choices. The political choices a government makes are defined by its view of society, its ambition, its ideological anchor and the interests that it seeks to represent. In my view, the Government has made choices that are not in the interests of the vast majority of citizens. The Government is therefore making the wrong choices, in contravention of the mandate it was given. For instance, the Government could introduce a 48% tax on incomes over €100,000, raising €365 million. It does not do that. That is its choice. It could re-introduce the non-principal private residence charge at €400, raising €151 million. It does not do that. It could restore capital gains tax to 40%, raising €98 million. Again, it does not do that. It could increase capital acquisitions tax to 40% and lower the thresholds, raising €108 million. It could introduce a 1% wealth tax, even temporarily, on net wealth over €1 million. It could introduce a new employers' rate of PRSI of 15.75% on portions of salaries over €100,000. It does not do that. It could standardise pension tax reliefs. It could introduce a phased withdrawal of the annual State subsidy to private schools. It does none of those things, but decides to do something entirely opposite and different.

Sinn Féin has proposed that Oireachtas pay and allowances, including those of the Taoiseach and his Ministers, be reduced by 50% of all amounts over €75,000, and that of Deputies and Senators be reduced to €75,000 and €60,000. This would save €3.7 million. How many home help hours would that provide? How many resources would that provide for children with disabilities? How many medical cards would that produce? Sinn Féin has been robust in holding the Government to account, but we have been measured; we have not opposed Government measures merely for the sake of it. At all times our approach has been to honour the mandate we received, to defend the interests of those on low and middle incomes, and to protect and support the most vulnerable of our citizens. We have sought to be constructive in opposition. We have put forward proposals which, unlike those of the Government parties, are based on fairness. We are trying to have a view of the social consequences of measures that are introduced. What type of Ireland will emerge arising from these policies? Our most recent alternative budgetary proposals had the capacity to reduce the deficit. There was no talk of fairy-tale economics or economic illiterates when that was put forward. It was fully costed. The Government may have disagreed with it in terms of its ideological basis but it was fully argued out. We wanted to reduce taxes on families, protect public services and invest in real jobs. That is what we put forward. There was not a whimper from the Government on any of the detail of that.

Citizens need a break from unrelenting austerity. We identified measures that would have allowed for a €2.453 million adjustment. We set out concrete proposals to assist job creation, to assist small and medium-sized businesses, to help the agricultural sector, to help people in mortgage distress and to defend rural Ireland. We argued the need for equality budgeting. There is no equality test for any of the measures the Government is bringing forward. The difference between Sinn Féin’s proposals and the Government’s budgets is that our alternative would reduce the deficit in a fair and equitable way. We have also outlined numerous costed ideas for how high-quality full-time jobs could and should be created in order to keep our young people at home.

The Government assumed office on the promise of a new way of doing politics, but it compounded the worst excesses of its Fianna Fáil predecessors. The old, discredited way of doing politics continues, with slightly different partners in Government. The explanation for all of this was given by the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Pat Rabbitte, when he explained that such promises were "what you tend to say during an election campaign." These comments may yet serve as the epitaph for this Government. It has been said that too many people do not see any improvement. That is because they have had no improvement. In fact, they are worse off.

The Taoiseach appears to have abandoned his proposal to produce report cards on the performance of Ministers. Given the way some have stumbled from calamity to controversy and back to calamity again, it is not surprising that there are no report cards. The Taoiseach used to say he had a five-point plan. Now he has no plan whatsoever and, really, no point.

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