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

I am sharing time with Deputy Paul Murphy. Following on from the points I made earlier, if we are to prevent the alarming rise of the far right across Europe and a return to the dark days of the 1930s and 1940s, we have to look at the underlying problems, and not only in Europe, of poverty, deprivation, inequality and gross disparities between the very wealthy and the majority in society. With the exception of Finland, homelessness is on the rise in every country in Europe and it has risen dramatically. As I indicated earlier, 112 million people or 22% of the European population are at risk of poverty. Even after social transfers, 75 million people in Europe are at risk of poverty. Inequality in the distribution of wealth and income has worsened substantially in Europe over the past 20 years. The richest 10% of the European population earn seven times more than the bottom 50% and obviously the disparity is even greater when we consider those at the very bottom. The position in this regard has worsened.

In response to some of these points, the Taoiseach referred to economic growth and improved levels of employment. That is true, although it is worth saying that there is economic growth pretty much across the western world at the moment and that picture is replicated just about everywhere. However, we also know that at some point we will hit the wall and there will be a downturn. By failing to eliminate those levels of poverty, inequality and deprivation, even at the height of an economic boom, we are storing up big problems for ourselves unless we address inequality. Even the World Economic Forum, which the Taoiseach attended, pointed out that economic growth is not being accompanied by measures to deal with inequalities in wealth, which are growing. Inequalities in income and wealth are growing. The major beneficiaries, by a long margin, of the economic growth we have seen in recent years have been the richest 10%. The lion's share of the economic growth has accrued to them and that is true in Europe, including Ireland where the richest 10% have 54% of all the wealth. All the indicators show that the gap between the haves and have-nots is growing. It is seen most acutely in the housing crisis across Europe where even those who are working, as I pointed out to the Taoiseach, cannot afford to put a roof over their heads. That is a political and a social accident waiting to happen unless we address it, yet it is never talked about. Even in the United States, people are starting to have this discussion about inequalities in wealth. It is rather surprising that figures such as Warren Buffett have talked about the need for wealth taxes but we never have that discussion. The Government runs a mile whenever we mention taxing wealth, redistributing wealth or maybe beginning to tax the corporations a bit more and redistributing that wealth to areas such as subsidised low-cost housing, public transport and so on.

I grit my teeth when I hear the Taoiseach talking about climate change and all the pious aspirations we have. He described climate change as a global problem and he is absolutely right. However, when the global climate change movement and scientists say we need to leave 80% of the fossil fuels in the ground, the Taoiseach says the position is different in Ireland. His Government will block a People Before Profit Bill that seeks to leave 80% of the fossil fuels in the ground because, he says, it will not make any difference. At a global level, it makes a big difference. If everybody in Europe and the world took the same attitude to fossil fuels as the Taoiseach, everyone would continue to explore for fossil fuels. The point about banning further fossil fuel extraction here is that it would send a signal, which we hope would be repeated across the world, as is the case, that this industry has to end. However, if we keep making exceptions for ourselves and sabotaging efforts to keep fossil fuels in the ground, as the Government is doing, it will give the green light to others across the world to keep rolling with the fossil fuel industry, which will continue to look for fossil fuels and pump them into the environment. That is climate hypocrisy.

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