David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Senator Hildegarde Naughton to the House. I congratulate her on her new role and wish her well in the years ahead.

It is okay to admit it when one is wrong. We saw this at the weekend in the comments by Mr. Ashoka Mody, one of the architects of Ireland's bailout programme and the resulting austerity agenda under which so many people have suffered in the course of six budgets in five years. Mr. Mody acknowledged that he got it wrong, that austerity is not working in this State and that we must abandon it if we are to allow the economy to grow. He called specifically on the Government to take the opportunity for an easing of austerity in the budget this autumn. I hope the Leader will accommodate a debate on this issue. We in Sinn Féin have been saying the same as Mr. Mody for several years. Unfortunately, however, the Government has pressed on with austerity. We have had members of the Cabinet clapping themselves on the back, giving themselves an A minus on job creation and claiming they have sorted out the banks. The reality is something different. Unemployment under the Government's stewardship has fallen by only 0.7%, in a context in which 180,000 people have emigrated in the same period. When one considers the commitments the Government parties made before the election and in the action plan for jobs, its failure is particularly clear. As I said, 180,000 mostly young people have left the country because of the austerity policies pursued by this Administration. If one of the architects of the bailout programme is prepared to admit he was wrong and advise us to back off from austerity and focus instead on policies that foster growth and investment, surely the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste can do the same? We should have a debate in this House in the run-up to the budget on how we can reduce our deficit in a fairer way, which would involve imposing taxes on higher earners in our society.