Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate Deputy O'Sullivan on tabling the motion. She is one of a very small number of Deputies who has a consistent human rights-based approach to these issues, and that includes the Government benches and not just the Opposition. It is important because too much of what goes on in here is based on short-term electoral gain or kowtowing to sectoral interests and there is not enough standing back and looking at the bigger picture, which is precisely what this motion seeks to do, which is why we are all here.

I am a socialist, which means in a traditional sense I look at the world turned upside down or, as I would put it, right side up, whereby the interests of ordinary people are dealt with first and foremost and everything else is subservient to this. I listened to the contributions from some of the Government backbenchers and I must ask what planet they are on. Obviously we have asked ourselves that since listening to the appalling handling of the water situation last week. We know there is an enormous disconnect between the real world and the way in which the Government views it. Even the statistics and research in this area show that the Deputies who spoke earlier are completely wrong.

The OECD report of 2013, Crisis squeezes income and puts pressure on inequality and poverty, stated income inequality in Ireland is four times the OECD average. Our economic policies are certainly redistributing wealth, but in reverse to the way in which Robin Hood did it; they take money from the poor and give it to the rich. Inequality has been increased in the lifetime of the Government. When commenting on the recent budget, Social Justice Ireland stated the gap between rich and poor has been extended. Those who took the biggest hit during the crisis were left behind again as priority was given to reducing the top income tax rate. John Douglas of the Mandate trade union made the point that the €405 million giveaway in income tax changes to the top earners could have been used to invest in Irish Water or other measures, but the Government chose not to do so.

A blog written by our former colleague, Luke 'Ming' Flanagan MEP, about the experience he had when he brought his baby to the hospital over the weekend and the reality of propaganda versus real life was illuminating. He told the story and captured the phrase, "Is surviving the new thriving?". Many people responded to it because it tallies exactly with the experiences they have had. People get up early in the morning and work harder and longer for less. An article in the Irish Examinertoday showed average wages have decreased €700 in the past three months despite the fact the hours of work have increased. The types of jobs that Deputy Mitchell O'Connor lauded are generally low-paid part-time zero-hour contracts as the gap between rich and poor in society develops. The race to the bottom carries on unimpeded as the Government seeks to implement a vicious neoliberal economic approach where public services have been decimated. The economic wage means the types of conditions in which people live now will mean the generation of young people now will be the first generation to be worse off than their parents.

How mad is that when the accumulated knowledge in society is greater than ever before? As a simple aspiration, is it too much to ask for a roof over one's head and not to be living in a hostel or on the streets? Is it too much to expect that when people are sick they might be able to get health care, that their children would get an education opportunity to allow them to develop to the best of their potential or that when they retire they might get the pension they paid into all their working lives? The things that people two generations ago thought were here forever have been taken away in the struggle to earn super profits for the very wealthy at the top of our society. That is an absolute condemnation of those in power, not just in this country, but across Europe and particularly in the United States where things are even worse.

Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan has pointed out that the Government could put different policies centre stage, but has chosen not to do it. Martin Luther King made the point that change does not come in on the wheels of inevitability but only through continuous struggle. The Irish people are educating themselves and realise that by them taking action outside the door of this Chamber they can better deliver a fairer society than those they voted for in the misplaced aspiration that they for would do it for them. I am very glad the people have realised that.

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