Clare Daly Criticises Next Generation EU, Warns Citizens Will Pay
Clare Daly spoke about the EU's Next Generation EU recovery instrument and criticised its design and consequences for citizens. She argued the 800 billion package is temporary, market-borrowed and that citizens will be expected to repay it, while Ireland's allocation is limited.
Next Generation EU package
She described Next Generation EU as the EU's 800 billion temporary recovery instruments, supposedly to support economic recovery from the corona pandemic and to achieve the EU's climate, digital and economic goals.
Ireland allocation and impact
She highlighted that Ireland will receive less than a billion and warned that "won't be much delivered on that," suggesting limited benefit for Irish citizens.
Conditionality and France example
She emphasised that there is no free lunch - money borrowed from the markets will not be given away without conditions, and pointed to how France's recovery monies were made conditional on achieving specific objectives such as changing unemployment insurance.
Citizens' repayment and tax proposals
She warned that citizens would be expected to pay the debt back and called for policymakers to "join the dots" so citizens do not bear the burden. She noted the financial transaction tax has been discussed since 2013 as one route to ensure citizens get the benefits rather than the costs.
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Thanks very much, President. Next Generation EU is the EU's 800 billion temporary recovery instruments, supposedly to support economic recovery from the corona pandemic and to achieve the EU's climate, digital and economic goals. And it sounds pretty good, not for Ireland, mind you, where less than a billion euros won't be much delivered on that. But let's remember there's no such thing as a free ride. Money borrowed from the markets will not be given away without conditions. We've already seen that, for instance, in the relation to the monies that France would receive as part of the recovery plan, being conditional on achievements in terms of specific objectives such as changing unemployment insurance and so on. This is not good enough, neither is it good enough that the citizens would be expected to pay this back. And while we can talk, and it's fine, about the idea of a financial transaction tax, this has been discussed since 2013. We've got to join the dots on this. We need to make sure that the citizens don't pay but get the benefits from this.
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