Dáil debates

Tuesday, 28 June 2022

Emergency Budget: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members]

 

9:40 pm

Photo of Pearse DohertyPearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank and commend everybody who spoke in the debate, particularly those who told the real life stories of people who are struggling to get by, such as the people who my colleague, Deputy O’Reilly, referred to who are worried about how they will pay for a holiday. Deputy Farrell mentioned the person who goes to bed early because they cannot afford to heat their home. There were many other stories like that. That is what is happening in the real world when we get out of these kind of cosy environments and talk to people on the streets, in their homes and in their villages. They are telling us that they are struggling to get by. Why would they not? We are seeing inflation at rates that we have not seen in nearly 40 years. The message from Government is:

Buckle up folks. You are on your own because we do not know what we are going to do for at least another four months.

It is very scary that we have a Government in charge of this State that is so out of touch with the needs of ordinary people the length and breadth of this State. It does not understand the anxiety, pressure, worries and financial and mental health issues that are bearing down on these families because of this crisis and the rise of energy prices and the prices of petrol, food and clothing and all of the anxiety that comes with that. The Government’s answer to them tonight is that in two weeks we are going on our holidays and we will come back in October and we might do something then. That is a disgraceful attitude from a Government that is completely out of touch.

It is not just Sinn Féin that has been arguing that there needs to be further interventions. The Minister acknowledged this. The ESRI said that more needs to be done. It said there has to be prudence because it needs to be targeted, which the Government is not doing. The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, the watchdog that was set up to make sure that we do not have the boom and bust that were brought to us by Fianna Fáil when wrecking the economy more than a decade ago, said there is scope for further targeted interventions to help people offset the cost-of-living crisis. The Central Bank said the same. Yet, the Minister for Finance, despite the fact that inflation has resulted in a bonanza in State revenue, will not act any further; indeed, he makes a virtue of it. We heard the Minister of State, whose answer previously to the inflation crisis was that people should shop around. He said in his speech that the Government’s measures were targeted. Let us put that to the test. The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council has an entire table in the report, table 3.1, which is called “Cost-of-living measures not targeted” by the Government. It said that of the €1 billion of measures introduced this year ahead of the stability programme update, SPU, €896 million of it was not targeted, which is nearly 90%. The ESRI said there is fiscal space to assist those most affected, but it must be targeted. The OECD said that such measures introduced by the Government have provided only limited protection to poor households.

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