Fianna Fail cannot be trusted on economy

The claims by Fianna Fail this weekend that they are competing to lead the next government, and that they can be trusted to build an economic recovery, is a clear indication that they are deluded.

In 2011, the people of Ireland put Labour in Government to clean up the economic mess that Fianna Fail created, and if they think that the people of Ireland are ready to forgive them, they really need to think again.

By the time Fianna Fail left office, we were losing 1,000 jobs a week, they had handed over our sovereignty to the troika and they had introduced the most savage spending cuts in the history of the state. In addition they:

·    Created a Ponzi economy based on tax cuts and property speculation
·    Introduced the blanket bank guarantee!
·    Burdened ordinary people with the gamblers debts run up by Anglo
·    Let the deficit spun out of control
·    Handed over our national sovereignty to the Troika
·    Cut the minimum wage
·    Hammered low and middle-income earners with the USC 
·    Lost 300,000 jobs from the economy
·    Stood idly by as migration sky-rocketed
·    Created an unprecedented crisis  in our public finances 

Since then this Government which has Labour at its heart, has pulled Ireland back from the brink and Ireland is now the fastest growing economy in Europe.

The last thing we need is to put the recovery at risk by putting into government buildings, some combination of Fianna Fáil, the party who created the economic problems in the first place, Sinn Fein who couldn’t balance a budget to save their lives and a mixed bag of Independents and niche parties.