Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach told the Dáil today that new rent caps are on the way. The way things are going, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, will end up with more caps than Robbie Keane. First of all, it was a 0% cap, which was okay, then it was a 4% cap, then the cap was the rate of inflation, and now it will be something else again. Let me spell it out for the Minister of State and I ask him to please bring word back to the Cabinet. A 3%, 2% or 1% cap will not be acceptable. A rent freeze might be acceptable to some, but for many, even that will not be acceptable at this stage. Rents are simply unaffordable and need to be cut, not just frozen.

The Minister, Deputy Donohoe, told the Dáil yesterday "consumer price inflation [is] expected to reach 3.7% in September, which would be the highest rate since June 2008", which is more than 13 years ago. I am surprised this information has not received more attention in the past 24 hours. An inflation rate of 3.7% in September would represent an increase of nearly a full percentage point from the 2.8% recorded in August. At that rate of increase, inflation would rise to 6.4% by the end of the year. To be clear, I am not saying it will reach that figure, but I do not think Ministers can give a guarantee it will not. I certainly do not think they are in a position to do that.

I put it to the Minister of State that if he wants to take strong action against inflation, he should use the weapon of price controls and use it to the full. Price control number one should be to legislate to control rent, not for a 0.5% or 1% reduction, but for rent cuts or, at the very least, to freeze rents. Price control number two should be to legislate to set a tough, maximum price per unit of gas, electricity, home heating oil etc. The market is delivering inflationary price rises and the market mechanisms must be strongly overridden in the interests of people and our society.

The controversy over the free contraception package is both interesting and instructive. Once upon a time, the reaction to such a proposal would have been led by the Catholic right saying the Government had gone too far.

In 2021, reaction comes first and foremost and overwhelmingly from a progressive, secular viewpoint which says this does not go far enough. All women, and not only those aged 17 to 25, should benefit. It should also be for men and non-binary people. Contraception is not just the responsibility of women. The proposal is, in effect, sexist. The repeal the eighth movement proposed free contraception for all five years ago. The Government is dragging its heels. The Government has reacted by saying this is a start. If that is the case, and the Government intends to roll it out further, it should do so now. I call on the Government to make provision in this budget for the finance to roll out that campaign further now rather than waiting for another year. I am inviting comment on that issue.

Someone said to me yesterday that they thought it was a tired budget, delivered in a tired and uninspiring way. It was certainly met by a collective "meh" by the mass of the people. One wit on the streets of Cork told the Evening Echothat he was waiting on his fiver so he could go off to the Costa del Sol. The reality, of course, is that his fiver will hardly get him a cup of coffee at the Costa Coffee shop. There is a point here. The Government Ministers, collectively, are tired. Perhaps they were tired by the 18 months of the pandemic but, on a deeper level, this Government is tired in the sense that it has no vision. It is a pro-business Government which does not have the tools to solve the problems caused by the major failures of the market. All it can do is tinker, hang in there and cling to power. The tide of history is now against the Government and, deep down, I think its members knows that.

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