Micheal Cholm Mac Giolla Easbuig
County councillor Micheál Choilm Mac Giolla Easbuig has queried the government’s claim that evidence a recovery is underway in Donegal can be seen in the increase in IDA supported jobs last year.
He was commenting on claims from Dinny McGinley TD that the increase of 311 jobs was proof that government policy was working.
The Independent councillor said that unless it is the deliberate policy of the government to strangle rural communities, there is no way that their economic policies can be said to be working.
“I think it shows just how out of touch with the lives of ordinary people government politicians must be when they are capable of making risible statements like this. If they had any contact with real people, they would not parrot the party line that a recovery is under way.”
“As a councillor I meet daily with people who are struggling to make ends meet, who can no longer afford the basic necessities and are actively considering or planning to emigrate. For many, far for improving, their situation is getting worse. The idea of a recovery is false. There is no return of those forced to leave. The shops and businesses which have closed have not reopened in our towns an villages.”
“While any increased employment is to be welcomed, the figure of 311 added jobs, is nothing to boast about. It represents a very modest return on IDA investment. There is so much more which could be done. We have a homeless crisis which could be addressed by investment in social housing. We have a roads system which is in very serious need of investment. We have the continuing scandal of hospital patients enduring hours on trolleys awaiting beds. Yet we have so many of our people unable to find work.”
“It is a lie that this state is ‘broke’. We are in fact one among the wealthiest but we are also among the most unequal. Inequality has got worse since 2008 with the richest 10% of the population now owning 60% of the wealth. Austerity simply did not apply to the wealthy. It was only for the rest of us. There is massive scope for a new government to reverse this inequality, to introduce a progressive tax system which for the first time has adequate tax on wealth to fund a programme of public investment which gives our people work and hope.”
