Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It does not make any sense. Schools are being built on a PPP system now and we are not going to get away with less than 15% plus about another 5% on maintenance. We are working to a system whereby we are being driven into the hands of the private sector, which will fleece us because that is what happens. If we could borrow the money to invest in infrastructure and create indigenous jobs at less than 2%, that would be brilliant, but that is not what we are able to do. We are not allowed to do that. It just does not make sense.

The Minister for Finance turned his nose up at the European debt resolution conference and says that our debt is in a very good position now, that it is affordable and repayable. It is affordable and repayable if one agrees that the banking bailout was just. Many people do not think so - most of the public does not. It is not Marxist ideology to suggest that there was a massive transfer of wealth from the public to the financial institutions. The people do not see that as being very fair. Deputy Harris's point that we owe a lot of money anyway and that we are overspending is separate, because this is the straw that broke the camel's back. This is why we have made great inroads into increasing inequality in Ireland. It is one of the reasons we have the fastest-growing child poverty levels in Europe at the moment.

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