Dáil business resumes but it's not business as usual, of course

DÁIL SKETCH:"NOT IN business as usual" was the metaphorical sign on the door of Government Buildings yesterday.

As TDs reeled from the huge job losses in Ulster Bank, and representatives of the troika continued to examine the books in the Department of Finance, Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn outlined the grim reality of our economic woes in the Dáil.

The bank job losses were the first item of Dáil business, with Fianna Fáil’s Éamon Ó Cuív and Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald seeking Government reaction to the devastating news at Opposition Leaders’ Questions.

Quinn, standing in for Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore, did not spare the banking institutions when he noted that the Republic had lost its economic sovereignty.

“We are not in business as usual and when it was business as usual it was mad business.” He recalled the Celtic Tiger’s fragile base. The construction sector had represented 25 per cent of economic activity, which was twice what the normal requirement would be in a growing economy, he said.

As an adjunct of that, the banking sector grew exponentially, and now its scaling down was coming about at a cost.

Banking jobs had once been much sought after. Many “young men or young boys, because they were 16, 17 and 18 years”, were lured out of education into lucrative jobs at the height of the boom, said Quinn.

They now found themselves with poor skill sets and would need to re-enter education.

Agreeing it was “not business as usual”, McDonald said this was particularly so in the case of those losing their jobs. She supported the view that the banking and construction sectors were used and abused by the great and the good.

Quinn referred to other victims of the false economic boom.

There was the “madness” whereby people on community employment schemes were offered mortgages and then crucified when the economy slumped.

There were ghost estates right across the country, but particularly in areas between Dublin and Sligo.

Many of the people conned into taking out mortgages were victims of the financial sector, said the Minister.

“They were, sadly, people who had an aspiration to own property and who were conned into taking a soft loan which, in rational banking terms, they could never possibly have repaid given the level of their outcome.”

Independent TD Finian McGrath renewed his warning about the impact of cuts to disadvantaged schools which are being reviewed by the Minister.

McGrath noted that Labour backbenchers shared his concern, adding that TD John Lyons had reportedly made an excellent speech on the issue at Wednesday night’s parliamentary party meeting. Lyons and his colleagues smiled, aware that a delegation led by party colleague Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte to Quinn had sought a reversal of the cuts.

Unlike the reversal of the budgetary disability cuts, in which Fine Gael backbenchers appeared to seize the initiative, Labour had won the public relations battle this time.

The glum expressions on the faces of Fine Gael backbenchers confirmed the Labour victory.