Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

In the section dealing with the economy, the programme for Government states that, "The parties to the Government recognise that there is a growing danger of the State's debt burden becoming unsustainable and [I want to underline this bit] measures to safeguard debt sustainability must be urgently explored". That is a clear injunction.

Many of us are extremely disappointed and depressed by the Taoiseach's - to put it mildly - muted response to the election results in Greece. They are a beacon of hope to people who have been victims of austerity right across Europe. They have been battered for six years with what Paul Krugman rightly called "the fantasy economics of the troika". "Fantasy economics" is one of the Taoiseach's favourite phrases. Paul Krugman said it was the troika who were guilty of fantasy economics in believing that one could batter an economy, cut its public services to pieces, slash people's incomes, and have any other result than creating a nightmare for that society. How right he is.

When someone is finally willing to challenge the failed consensus of austerity, as the people of Greece have now been willing to do, and ask the question, "Can we explore debt sustainability?", the Taoiseach fails to endorse that call. In failing to do so, he is breaching his own commitment in the programme for Government to "urgently explore any opportunity to improve debt sustainability".

We are effectively acting as the scabs of Europe in breaking solidarity with debtor countries which have been crippled by austerity. In doing so, however, the Taoiseach is also breaking promises made in the programme for Government. In light of his commitments in the programme for Government, I ask the Taoiseach to reconsider the question of a debt conference and urgently exploring debt sustainability.

The consequences of that failure to explore debt sustainability are most acutely felt in sectors of society where the most vulnerable are at risk. As has been mentioned already, the state of our health service is one of the starkest examples of that. It is a serious breach in the Taoiseach's government commitments.

In the programme for Government's section on health, it states, "We must reduce the cost of achieving the best health outcomes for our citizens and end the unfair, unequal and inefficient two-tier health system". How does the Taoiseach square that with the fact that the Minister for Health had to admit last week that, in order to deal with the crisis in accident and emergency departments, waiting lists will lengthen, including those for non-emergency surgery? People who are already waiting intolerable periods for important operations, will now have to wait longer.

I do not know if the Taoiseach listens to his car radio but we are bombarded, literally every day, with advertisements from the Mater Private Hospital and the Blackrock Clinic saying, "Come to us. You can get immediate treatment. Whatever it is you need, you can get, if you can pay for it." Those who cannot pay, however, will be on public waiting lists for even longer because health budgets have been slashed.

That is a clear example of where the Taoiseach has failed in a commitment to end a two-tier health system wherein by dint of having money one can get decent health services, but otherwise one will languish on a waiting list or on a trolley. What will the Taoiseach do to fulfil that promise?

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