“The Irish economy is now recovering, unemployment is falling and the growth rate in Ireland is the highest in the EU”: The words of Labour T.D. for Westmeath, Willie Penrose, who was the chosen as the sole candidate to contest the upcoming 2016 general election at the party’s Longford Westmeath selection convention at Milltown/Empor Community Hall last Tuesday, 15 December.
“Growth is too concentrated in Dublin and much of the increase in output is in the multinational sector. In rural Ireland the collapse of the building industry led to large-scale unemployment and emigration and this has not been reversed. We need to distribute the benefits of economic growth to rural Ireland and this means investing in infrastructure and generating sustainable employment,” Deputy Penrose stated.
“The Government has published a plan for infrastructure investment but it is constrained by the budgetary rules imposed by the EU. However, a huge new source of revenue will become available over the next two years when the banks repay a substantial part of the capital invested in them since 2009. This will amount to around €25billion. The Government is under pressure to use this money to repay part of the national debt but it could be more productively used to fund infrastructure. With interest rates on Government debt at a historical low, there is no pressing reason for the proceeds of the sale of the Government’s shares in the banks to be used to repay national debt.
“Investment as a percentage of national income has been too low in Ireland for decades and during the boom too, many resources were used for current spending and too little for investment. We are in danger of producing a society of private affluence and public squalor as J.K. Galbraith described the US economy. We need to invest in schools and hospitals for our growing population.
“Irish Water has been much maligned but it faces the task of replacing our water infrastructure, much of which dates from the 19th century, resulting in a huge loss of water through leakages. After the deluge and floods of the past week, it is frighteningly obvious that we must invest in flood defences. While the agreement on carbon emissions reached recently is very welcome, it can only slow down climate change which is already happening and which we must prepare for,” Deputy Penrose stated.
Deputy Penrose was speaking hot on the heels of his unanimous selection as the Labour Party candidate for Longford-Westmeath, recalling that when the Labour Party entered Government with Fine Gael, they did so in the knowledge that the country was facing the greatest crisis in its history.
“In entering Government, we were determined that those who had benefited least from the boom would be shielded as far as possible from the harsh measures needed to restore economic stability. Eamon Gilmore has been criticised for the slogan ‘Labour’s Way or Frankfurt’s Way’ but the critics do not acknowledge that at Labour’s insistence, the deal negotiated by Fianna Fáil was renegotiated on more favourable terms and some of the harshest measures which the Troika demanded were resisted. Commentators from outside Ireland expressed surprise that there were not a lot more public protests at the austerity measures, which were imposed. That is because unlike in Greece, Spain and Portugal, Labour ensured that the unemployed, the elderly and the disabled were protected as far as possible and that the economic plan imposed on us be focused on job creation,” Deputy Penrose stated, before reiterating that despite the busted economy, the Labour Party in Government had remained adamant that there be investment in schools.
