Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Some people outside were saying this was a great day for those who are being elected, the Taoiseach and the new Ministers who have been appointed. I am sure individually and personally it is a great day for people who feel they have made some kind of progress in political life. However, I want to look at things holistically.

I think this day will remembered not for the election of the Taoiseach but for the election of Gerry Carroll of People Before Profit in West Belfast where he topped the poll and the imminent election of Eamonn McCann in Derry. I say that because I think that will be the big news of the day. When we talk about new politics, we have to look at what is going on in this country. Politics is happening inside Chambers like this, but is also significantly happening outside. The election of People Before Profit candidates in the North, just like the election of Anti-Austerity Alliance and People Before Profit candidates and others on this side to this House represents the interests of politics on the outside, the interests of people power against austerity. The election of Gerry Carroll and Eamonn McCann represents the fight against austerity, North and South, as committed to by ordinary people.

I want to talk about politics both inside and outside the Chamber, but I also want to give the Taoiseach and his Ministers a surprise by telling them - I am not sure I have the English right on this - that, should they do certain things, we will be voting for them. I want to run through those things very quickly. If they are willing to make a massive investment in public housing and build tens of thousands of public houses - not private, not for developers and not for landlords' enhancement - over the next five years that will deal with the housing and homelessness crisis, we will vote for that measure. If they will urgently employ the doctors and at least 5,000 nurses required to end the trolley crisis in this country, we will vote with them for that measure. If they deliver a public health service that is available to people at the point of need and not according to the size of their wallets, we will vote for the Government with that measure. If they will, in the beginning, try to do something with Irish Water by actually fixing the leaks and dealing with the sewage problem, investing at least €1 billion per year that is brought in through progressive taxation, ending the scourge of metering and the waste that metering and billing have become, and putting Irish Water into the dustbin of history, we will vote with them on that measure. If they are prepared to treat public sector pay in a serious way, to restore the pay cuts the people who work in this Chamber have suffered, to end the ridiculous pension-related deduction that is imposed on all public service workers and to begin to outlaw - not reform, but outlaw - the FEMPI legislation, we will vote with the Government on that measure.

People will ask how we can provide for all that, and clearly we do need tax justice in this country. The Government's document is so scarce on any form of tax justice that it is outrageous. Given the recent publication of the Panama papers, the Government should be ashamed of itself for treating that so lightly. This is a scandal of global proportions. What we need in this country is a commitment from the Government that it will bring in measures to make sure that the corporations pay the effective rate of tax at 12.5% - not the 4% and 6% they currently pay, but an effective rate of 12.5%. Everybody seems to run scared of that, as though the corporations will flee the country, but the world is narrowing for people who want to avoid tax on that level. It is narrowing because of the revelations of the Panama papers and the commitment made by other governments to end the tax havens that exist around the world. We have to start by looking at that and at introducing a financial transaction tax on all the transactions that go through the IFSC, and we will begin to see billions brought in through taxing the rich and more tax justice achieved in this country. We will vote with the Government on that measure.

Equality for women is a huge issue. Some of the document tries to address it, but it is hilarious that on the one hand the Government talks about setting up a commission to look at the question of repealing the eighth amendment - when poll after poll shows that the vast majority in this country want to see a referendum on repealing the eighth amendment, not a commission dominated by right-wing politicians who are actually against abortion - while on the other hand it advocates creating more jobs in the Army for women. Great. We will not give women the right to control their own bodies, but we will send them into the military to show that we favour equality.

Last but not least, I want to talk about other equality issues, such as refugees. How are we going to deal with them? We have promised to take in 4,000 and we have taken in less than 500. Then we have the Tánaiste telling us they do not want to come to Ireland because they all want to go to Germany or Sweden. They have never heard of us. They have never been asked whether they would like to go to a very green, pleasant island on the edge of the Atlantic, if there were equality so that they might be treated well.

We need to get the US troops out of Shannon Airport. If the Government were to put that measure before us, we would vote for it, but that is not going to happen inside this House unless the new politics outside this House puts pressure on everybody in here. That is why I want to end by saying that the election success of Gerry Carroll and Eamonn McCann today is the news of the day, not because of the individuals involved, but because it represents a trend across the world. We have seen it with Bernie Sanders; we have seen it in Britain, with the election of the new leader of the UK Labour Party; we have seen it through the emergence of strong left parties in Greece, South America and Spain; and now we are seeing it again in the rise of the movement of people power in this country, North and South of the Border, against austerity, regardless of who is implementing that austerity.

It is not working, it is destroying our economy, it is destroying our people, it is destroying public services and we want to see that ended.

See this speech in context