John Halligan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is the first time in the history of the peace process that a trade union movement has refused to back a landmark political deal. This has to be considered and looked into.

I want to refer to the €2 billion of what is called new money. Everybody knows there is no €2 billion, and we can read the analysis in the Northern newspapers and, indeed, some of the Southern newspapers. Again, ICTU has said that a proportion will be taken from the €2 billion to pay redundancies. Having read the agreement, it is obvious to many people, including working people and the trade union movement, that the Tory Government is forcing the Northern Ireland Executive to take what has been called a payday loan cut in public services, which will result over a period of four years in the loss of about 20,000 jobs. As it will not be possible to get 20,000 voluntary job losses, the Government here should not fool itself. Very many people will just be sacked, while the savings from these losses will pay for a tax cut to big businesses through the reduction in corporation tax. Therefore, thousands of jobs and millions of pounds will be taken out of the economy, never to return, and the loss of the spending power of these 20,000 jobs will have a detrimental effect on the Northern Ireland economy.

All of these workers will face the Tory definition of social welfare payments in terms of how they are looked after while on social welfare. All we have to do is look at the intolerable Tory attitude in the UK in general to people on low incomes and social welfare, and how it has impoverished millions of citizens in the UK with a tax on social welfare recipients and those less well off in society. I do not believe for one moment that this will not happen to the very many hundreds of thousands of workers in Northern Ireland.

In the little time I have left to speak, I want to quote George Osborne, who said: "This will give the Northern Ireland Executive greater power to rebalance the economy towards a stronger private sector, boosting employment". These were his words no later than yesterday, when he suggested that 20,000 job losses will boost employment. George Osborne, Theresa Villiers and Sammy Wilson are three of the most right-wing politicians one can come across in Europe; they are anti-worker, anti-union and pro-austerity. I would believe the ICTU any day before I would believe any of those three politicians.

See this speech in context