Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This has been an interesting debate on the summer economic statement. The document provides a snapshot of what is happening. On paper, things are going exceptionally well, with Government Members saying how great things are. When you look in more detail at what is happening and how people are reacting, the problem is people are just trying to survive. They should, in normal circumstances, be doing okay. Based on their wages, they should be doing all right, but they are struggling badly. It is happening across the board throughout the country. Much of it is down to the policies, or lack of policies, of this Government. Vulture funds, cuckoo funds, multimillionaires and people in the top 5% income bracket in this country are doing well and Government policies are working well for them. The mistake we often make on this side of the House is we think the Government is starting from the same place as us and that it wants to help people at the lower end who are in difficulty. That is not where the Government is coming from, which is a problem that leads to many misunderstandings and conflict in the House. From the point of view of the people the Government represents, the Government is doing well, but they are not the vast majority of people in this country. People who have been left behind consistently are not being looked after.

Much was made in the statement about the provision of €2.4 billion in the previous budgetary cycle. Some €1 billion of that was the €100 or more given to everybody for energy. A multimillionaire with ten houses would get ten times that. People who are struggling to get their children onto the bus for school, to clothe them and to pay their electricity bills get the payment once. How does that work? It was dressed up as being too difficult to do in a targeted way and said that it had to be done this way. It was seven months from when the Government said it would do it until the payments came through. The reality is that if it could not do it in a targeted way within seven months, it should not be in government. We see that problem all the time in this House. We give the Government credit by thinking it wants to help the people we are talking about, but it does not. Maybe we should change our arguments a wee bit.

The statement claims the economy has recovered to 5.6% above pre-pandemic levels and that things are going well in the State, yet we continue to see people having difficulties. I know of at least three food banks in my constituency of Donegal. That is a sad reflection on the Government. There are food banks all around the country. This is supposedly one of the richest countries in the world, as has been mentioned in the House. How can we expect citizens to rely on food banks to feed their families? It is a sad reflection on us and we should all be embarrassed about that. A food bank in Letterkenny is open two days a week. Another food bank opens regularly in my home town of Killybegs. It is unbelievable. There are food banks in Clare and elsewhere. The Government is quite happy and talks about how well the economy is doing. An economy is not doing well if citizens have to depend on food banks for their families to survive.

I was at a farmers' meeting a couple of weeks ago. There was a rake of spuds that were late for this season and were held over until the next season. They did not want them to go onto the market and were going to put them into silage pits to make silage from them. What would be wrong with packaging those spuds to give to the food banks so that people can survive? They were perfectly good spuds. There was nothing wrong with them. They were going to make them into silage. That is the kind of country that we live in, which this Government has created and is pursuing.

We see the consequences of the war. I heard the Tánaiste say earlier today that electricity costs are not significant for businesses. I would love for him to tell that to the business that came into my office which saw its ESB electricity bill increase from €1,988 per month to €3,400 for the month of May. That is a 42% increase in one month. How are those small businesses supposed to survive? The Government does not care about small businesses. All it wants to do is to keep the multinationals happy. Those small businesses employ people in rural areas around the country and keep them going. That needs to be looked at by the Government and be highlighted in the summer economic statement instead of having a gloss about how we are the best country in the world and so on. The reality is people on the ground do not feel or see that. They are not living it.

The issue of homelessness is raised every day in this House. A couple of weeks ago, Deputy Boyd Barrett brought up the case of a woman who works for Tusla to prevent homelessness among clients of Tusla who has herself been made homeless. That is telling. You could not make it up. This happens every day. It gets no traction at all with the Government. That is what is wrong with this statement. We hear about how great and positive things are. Things are not positive. No matter how much we stand up in the House to say how great things are and how we are the second best country in the world for this or the third best for that or how we have the most multinational development, people are hungry, scared and homeless throughout the country. People in Donegal cannot get into homeless accommodation. Every day, I deal with people who have been put out of their houses. The council cannot provide any houses for them because councils are not allowed to build houses. That happens every single day. This Government knows about it and will not do anything about it. That is a sad reflection on it, but it is happening right across the board.

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