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

The Minister raises fundamental issues when he states that without the Haddington Road agreement, we would not have had a budget. His argument is based on the acceptance of the troika programme of compelling Irish people to assume tens of billions of euro in debt that did not belong to them. The Government could have broken this cycle but decided instead to continue to sacrifice nurses, local authority workers and others on the altar of the financial markets. Does the Minister agree that this is the position?

Does the Minister also agree that the programme of austerity has seriously undermined employment creation and that it is by reinvestment, particularly major public investment, rather than repaying bondholders that the unemployment crisis will be resolved? It is shameful that he is party to a scheme that forces people who are unfortunate enough to be long-term unemployed off the dole and onto forced labour schemes.

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