Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Forty years ago we were experiencing double-digit inflation and the Taoiseach of the time addressed the nation and said we were living beyond our means and needed to tighten our belts. Those words are not far from the words of this Government, as it tells people they must wait. They must just wait another few months before the Government can help any more, but the people cannot wait. The belt cannot be tightened any further by the worker in the west who is struggling to make the trip to his badly needed job because he cannot pay the cost of going there five days a week, or the young couple who were spending most of their wages on rent even before this crisis and now wonder how in the name of God they will ever get married or have children. Then there is the elderly woman who stays in one room all day long so she only has to heat it and goes to bed earlier so she can save on oil. The reality is there are no other options left for these people. They have done all they can. We cannot be some ivory tower that pays lip service to the struggles and needs of the people but fails to act. Every single one of us in this Chamber holds clinics. We know the stark realities people are facing and we need to do everything we can to help.

Insím leis an Aire Stáit gur léir go bhfuil brú aisteach ar theaghlaigh faoi láthair. Tá orthu rogha a dhéanamh idir a gcuid billí a íoc nó bia a cheannach. Ní thuigim, a bheag nó a mhór, an fáth a bhfuil an Rialtas ag rá le daoine fanacht roinnt míonna eile go dtí gur féidir leis an Rialtas cabhrú leo.

Week after week, I have heard the Taoiseach raise Putin's war on Ukraine when questioned about the cost of living crisis. I and others beside me understand the war is fuelling the inflation crisis. We get that. We get that there are external factors that are way beyond the control of this Government, but the Minister of State needs to understand that when families literally cannot put food on their tables, we need to do something. We understand the Government cannot control the price of commodities. We understand it cannot control what happens in a war zone. However, it can control what happens here. It can change the rate of excise duty. It can increase cost-of-living payments. It can put a month's rent back into renters' pockets. This Dáil and this Government are not some everyday onlooker. Deputy Fleming is a Minister of State. He and his Government have power. They can act on what we have put forward in this motion and we need them to act on this. We keep hearing from this Government that it cannot do everything. We are not asking it to do everything but we are asking it to put forward the suggestions we have in the motion this evening. They are easily implemented measures that would help those who need it most.

We have often heard, and often heard it from this Government, that politics is about choices. The Government is choosing to close its eyes to these measures. This should not be about party politics. This should be about doing what is best for the people. We have decent measures here so we should work together and implement them. I do not need to tell the Minister of State what he already knows, namely, that the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, IFAC, the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, and the Central Bank have all said the Government has scope to introduce additional measures to support households. Indeed, IFAC and the OECD have said the Government's measures have not been targeted. The Government calls us populist all the time. Would the Minister of State call those bodies populist too? If it is populist to point out that public finances have ample fiscal space for these measures then I guess the ESRI, the Central Bank and IFAC are populists. If it is populist to point out the weakest in our society are the ones who are suffering most, then almost every community group and NGO in this State are populists. If it is populist to want to protect people from this crisis and govern in a responsible way, then I guess every party not in government is populist. What the Government calls populist, therefore, is what I call living in the real world.

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