Howlin dismisses criticism of Labour as ‘political drivel’

The Minister for Public Expenditure has dismissed as "political drivel'' criticism of Labour's role in Government by Independent TD Seamus Healy during heated Dáil exchanges today.

Brendan Howlin said maybe Mr Healy's "salary is too healthy here" for him to notice Ireland had just gone through the worst economic crisis in the State's history.

“We have managed, as a Government, to pick up the broken pieces of a shattered economy and brought us back to growth,” he added.

Mr Howlin, who was taking Opposition leaders' questions in the absence of Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore, said it was expected unemployment would be below 11 per cent this year.

“We have stabilised our budgets and we have torn up the prom note, the despicable arrangement made by the previous administration,’’ he added. “We have brought confidence back into our economy again.’’

Speaking on behalf of the technical group, Mr Healy, who represents Tipperary South, said the number of people living in poverty had risen and poverty generally had deepened. "That is not my view, but the recently expressed view of the OECD,'' he added. "And it confirmed the views of the ESRI, who told us that budget 2014 led to a reduction of two per cent for low income groups.''

He said Labour had broken the promises it made during the last general election, when the party had, in "Tesco-like ads'', warned that Fine Gael wanted to cut child benefit. Yet Labour, in Government, had supported cuts in child benefit.

“Is the Labour party not ashamed, in the centenary of the 1913 lockout, that it would support budgets hitting low paid people rather than the super-rich and the very wealthy,’’ he added.