People voted for change in 2011. But just got more of the same… Dáil Diary no 39- 3rd October 2014 This week, I had the opportunity to address the Tánaiste Joan Burton, at Leaders Questions – I raised the issue of the so called Economic Recovery being for the few, rather than the majority, who feel that any notion of a recovery has failed to touch their lives. I also raised the point that the Coalition Government has talked so much about real reform of how things are done in politics, but, as the Taoiseach’s handling of the McNulty affair demonstrates, nothing has really changed. The fact of the matter is that the established parties in Ireland behave in a similar manner, and as long as people keep voting for them, they can expect more of the same. Here’s my Dáil contribution and part of the Tánaiste’s reply- The Government has boasted of late about the economic recovery. Much of the media have acted as cheerleaders. But Recovery for whom? I attended a public meeting in Wexford on Tuesday. Many of those who attended wondered why the recovery had not touched their lives. There was much more a sense of fear than of recovery. The idea that the recovery is for everybody is not true for the majority of the people in this country. There is no doubt that there has been a recovery for some, probably about 20% of the population. People are genuinely afraid that they will not be able to pay for water. The Taoiseachs jobs-for-the-boys debacle has added to their disillusionment, making Fine Gael look as grubby as Fianna Fáil. Fine Gael has achieved an incredible feat by making Fianna Fáil look good through this episode. A man who was angry about the McNulty affair telephoned me on Tuesday and told me about an appointment the Taoiseach had made, namely that of his good friend Michael McGarry to the Board of Sustainable Energy Ireland. Politics in Ireland has not changed. The people voted for change in 2011 but they did not get it; they got more of the same. Only last July the Tánaiste said this Government would embark on a new cycle of political reform to restore trust in our institutions and public life. That trust is in tatters. Will the Tánaiste do the country a service and pull the plug on the coalition? And give the people an opportunity to pass judgment? The Tánaiste replied: The Deputy stated that there had been some recovery but it had not been felt by everybody. Yesterday we had the best figures for the live register and people returning to work for more than five and a half years. We still have a long way to go, but unemployment has fallen to its lowest level in five and a half years and now stands at 11.1%. I spoke to people yesterday from the Construction Industry Federation, CIF, on which the Deputy is an acknowledged expert. In Grangegorman a huge number of people are now at work on what had become a derelict site in the centre of Dublin, which is now being transformed by some of the best building work in Europe. I discussed with the representatives of the CIF the issue of apprenticeships - something about which the Deputy has spoken to me on several occasions, when he demonstrated his extensive knowledge of the subject - and trainees getting back to work. That is all positive…. …We now have 75,000 more people at work, compared to the 350,000 jobs the country lost in the three years following the bank guarantee. I agree that the country has a long way to go to put everybody who wants to work back to work. Approximately 80,000 people who were employed in construction, as the Deputy knows, are on the live register. …The Deputy is correct; these are the important things for people in Ireland. It is also important that the system of governance that we have should be as good as we can make it. In regard to the public sector, which is run by State boards, we need to make sure we have the best people we can, from a variety of backgrounds and circumstances and with a variety of skills, on those boards. Mick Wallace: On the issue of jobs, there are 45,000 people on short-term schemes and 130,000 on part-time schemes. In total, there are more than 500,000 people looking for a full-time job in the State. The figures are being helped, as the Tánaiste well knows, by the huge emigration of young people. What we have seen in the last few years has been a great erosion of public services. There is no denying it. There has been a race to the bottom in terms of social protection. Many of the jobs the Government created are on minimum wage with no contracts. Things are not as they were and Labour has been part of it. It surprises me that Labour has gone along with so much of the neo-liberal, right-wing philosophy of Fine Gael. Neo-liberalism has been the order of the day. It surprises me that the Tánaiste is okay with that. Ireland must take a different direction. We have put the interests of large financial institutions and big business before those of the citizens. That is the fact. It should not be that way, as the Tánaiste knows. A majority of the people are sick to the back teeth of how things have developed. They are sick to the back teeth of the cronyism that has surfaced in the last couple of weeks. I am surprised that so many are surprised by it, but people are angry at what they are witnessing. The people would like Endas head on a plate and the Tánaiste can deliver it. There is huge anger on the street. Is the Labour Party okay with that? Mick Wallace. You can watch my speech on YouTube if you click on this link: https://youtube/watch?v=3xprLmMG83E
Posted on: Fri, 03 Oct 2014 19:14:35 +0000
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