Richard Boyd Barrett TD to say “chickens are coming home to roost on the austerity agenda” during debate in Dail on Fiscal Responsibility this evening
People Before Profit TD will outline alternative economic strategy based on answers to PQ’s on wealth and income received from Department of Finance
Speaking in the Dail today about the Fiscal Responsibility Bill, Richard Boyd Barrett TD for the People Before Profit Alliance and finance spokesperson for the ULA, said: “The predictions of the NO side in the Fiscal Treaty referendum have been confirmed.
The Government got the Fiscal Treaty passed by rubbishing the arguments of those of us on the NO side who pointed to the devastating cuts that the treaty would demand”.
“The Government argued the referendum would help growth, jobs and investment. This strategy now lies in tatters. Even the IMF has admitted that the effects of austerity are much more damaging then they had thought. The Fiscal Advisory Council’s growth forecasts are now revealed as hopelessly optimistic. We are clearly not getting jobs, growth or investment and instead of green shoots we are careering towards a depression.
What has been forced on the Irish Economy is now having the knock on effect on the core countries of Europe. The European economy as a whole is again going into recession. The government strategy of an export driven recovery is not feasible. Far from the debt burden decreasing a stagnant Irish economy will mean deeper and more devastating cuts above and beyond those currently being implemented by the Troika”.
“It is well known that when you are in a hole, stop digging. If we do not stop digging now we will bury the whole of the Irish Economy. But instead of this the government is planning to plough ahead with its austerity agenda.”
“Enshrining the budgetary rules in the Fiscal Treaty as law will impose a general government deficit not exceeding 0.5% of GDP”.
“The Fiscal Responsibility Bill also enshrines the ʻdebt brakeʼ into law. This means that where general government debt exceeds 60% of the Gross Domestic Product the excess must be reduced by one twentieth a year. The government will slash annual spending by 5% until they reached this threshold”.
“This Bill will result in an additional €6 billion in cuts and taxes on top of the €8 billion promised to the Troika and the bondholders over the next three years.”
“Irish Government debt currently stands at 110% of GDP and the EC predicts that it will peak at 120% of GDP in 2013. The EC has also said it will not allow the ESM to fund banks directly and that therefore Ireland will not get a deal on the bank debt it has shouldered”.
“This means we will face years of austerity trying to service an unsustainable debt burden. The only solution is to cancel the debt and force the banks and the financial elite to pay for the crisis they created.”
“This bill also sets the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council on a statuary basis, this gives the council the ability to enforce budgetary policy on government no matter what voters decide. None of the members of the IFAB predicted the 2008 crash nor did they criticize reckless Government policy during the boom. Rather these are the same ʻexpertsʼ who boosted the speculative boom and are now giving similarly disasterous right wing ʻslash and burnʼ economic advice to the Government”.
“We should remember that Irelandʼs debt crisis resulted from a banking crisis not from a fiscal crisis from state spending. The private debt of speculators was transferred onto the backs of taxpayers”.
“The Labour Party in particular won large votes in the last election by promising to ʻburn the bondholdersʼ, instead they burned their own voters and sided with the financial elite of Europe”.
“The only solution to Irelandʼs debt crisis will come from refusing to pay the private debt of speculators. People Before Profit says ʻCancel the Debtʼ. Instead of paying bondholder let’s use the money to invest in jobs and our society instead”.
“Recent figures we received from the Department of Finance show that the top 5% of earners earn over €20 billion between them. If you were to take the €3.5 billion proposed budget cuts out of their incomes rather than from those that can afford it least, they would still have a take home pay of nearly €100,000 each. That’s what we mean when we say ‘Tax the Super-Rich’
