Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

He has not said it will end at the end of the year and when or in what circumstances it will end. He has put forward a motion, which the Dáil has to consider, not what he has said elsewhere or previously. My officials estimate it could cost up to €600 million in a full year. There was no mention of mortgage interest relief in Sinn Fein's pre-budget submission published last September even though ECB rates had already been increased by 1.25% by that date and there was a widespread expectation of further rate increases. In fact, this proposal is part of a consistent pattern on the part of Sinn Féin, issue by issue, calling for more expenditure or tax concessions without ever giving us an overall picture of how much in total it would cost.

Even looking at the Sinn Féin website today, we see the party spokesperson on environment and climate action, Deputy O'Rourke, is calling for an energy price cap. It is not clear who would pick up the tab but presumably the State would be on the hook for most if not all of it. Deputy Cullinane recently called for a multi-annual capacity expansion plan to deliver increased hospital capacity. The party's education spokesperson, Deputy Clarke, called for changes to the salary scale for new teachers and highlighted demands to increase spending on second level education from 1% to 1.9% of GDP, even though Sinn Féin knows well that GDP is not the appropriate metric for Government spending to be compared with other jurisdictions. It has also made recent calls for more funding for child and adolescent mental health services, increased investment in psychosocial supports for family carers, a dedicated retrofitting programme for solid fuel households, new supports to sheep farmers and increased stipends for PhD student supports. I could go on and on.

See this speech in context