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

I strongly agree with the sentiments in the motion which state that the debt burden on Ireland and on other European states is unsustainable and is acting as a huge brake on the economic and social development of society. I agree also with the sentiment that it is the social and economic interests of our people that were sacrificed to private banks and to the European financial markets in the bailouts. Of course, there should be support for a European debt conference.

I do not agree that the European Union was ever managed on the basis of being a zone of solidarity and mutual respect. It was and is a club for the major corporations, the finance houses, the armaments industry and, of course, the establishment politicians, be they Christian or social democratic. Not solidarity but right-wing neoliberalism, privatisation and profit maximisation for the benefit of big capitalists is what has driven the leading institutions of the European Union.

It is incredible that the Government fails to support a debt conference. The craven adherence of Fine Gael and Labour to the austerity agenda, driven by the financial markets and the right-wing governments throughout Europe, shames the Irish people, who have been victims of austerity and who have, on many occasions, stood in solidarity with the people of Greece and, indeed, of other countries where people have suffered. It is breathtaking that an Irish Minister for Finance would describe the Irish debt as affordable and repayable and that the country is in a good position in that regard when just under €8 billion a year in interest alone is paid to banks and bondholders, the big majority of it odious debt or the result of odious debt being foisted on the Irish people and the damage that did to the economy. These are billions that could and should be going into investment, infrastructure and the creation of tens and hundreds of thousands of jobs for our people, particularly our youth. As an example, €1 billion alone out of that every year would transform the water infrastructure and obviate the push by the current Government to impose a hated water tax, which will not be accepted.

The Irish people, like the Greek people, need a debt conference, but not merely to stretch out the repayments over a longer period of time and put the burden instead of on the present generation or on the children of the present generation, on the children of children yet unborn. That would be a rotten compromise. A debt conference should deal with the repudiation of odious debt. The Irish people have no responsibility for what was foisted on them as a result of what was speculated and gambled during the bubble. The Greek people have no responsibility for the reckless lending by the European banks and bondholders to right-wing Greek governments, the majority of which did not benefit the Greek people but an elite in that society. The position is similar for the people of Portugal, Spain and other countries.

The coming to power of Syriza in Greece has given hope to people in that country and much further afield. A party to stand against austerity is what people have yearned for.

Syriza will have to hold firm to its election promises to improve the lot of working class people and must not, in any sense, agree to a rotten compromise with the European debt mongers. Inevitably, it will be in headlong confrontation with the financial markets, Frau Merkel and the other neoliberal political parties which will try to undermine the government in Greece. If Syriza and the Greek people are forced into a corner and default or if they are pushed out of the eurozone, they can only stave off disaster by taking the most radical democratic and socialist measures to nationalise the banks in public ownership and major sectors of the economy similarly in order that it can be planned for the people by introducing capital and credit controls to stop speculators and taking other such radical measures in the interests of the people. It will need a socialist programme to transform the horror created by the barbarism of the profit system and the financial marketeers.

Mar fhocal scoir, teastaíonn tacaíocht do chomhdháil Eorpach maidir le fiacha a chur ar ceal. Chomh maith le sin, teastaíonn tacaíocht le lucht oibre na Gréige i bhfábhar athrú raidiceach sóisialach daonlathach le fáil réidh le córas barbartha na margaí airgeadais agus an caipitleachas.

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