Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)

I have apologies from Deputy Coppinger. Our group will divide the time equally between the three of us. I thank the Labour Party for bringing forward this motion. One thing it does very well is draw a straight line between handouts for big business and child poverty and homelessness. It is utterly scandalous that the Government is planning to hand over €675 million in unnecessary VAT cuts to hotels, restaurants and fast food chains when one in five children is living in poverty. Employment in hospitality is up 6.6% this year. There are 13,200 more people working in the sector than there were two years ago. Closures are down 10% year on year. According to the CSO, gross value added increased by 14% from 2022 to 2024. None of that suggests an industry in crisis that needs Government support. That this is on the agenda for the budget is all purely down to the power of corporate lobbying. One of the greatest scams I have ever seen pulled in politics is to suggest that there is a massive crisis and that the answer is not targeted supports for small businesses, some of which are in crisis. No, it is a massive handout from the State, paid for by the public and by children in poverty, to some of the richest corporations in this country.

Since January 2023, the CEO of the Restaurants Association of Ireland, Adrian Cummins, has 59 entries in the lobbying register. He has met with the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe. He has met with the Minister for public expenditure, Deputy Chambers, three times. He has met the Minister for enterprise, Deputy Peter Burke, twice. He has met the Taoiseach. He has attended Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meetings and enterprise round tables. Adrian Cummins can pick up the phone and call the Government any time he wants. Can a parent struggling to put food on the table for their family do that? Can a child who is going to bed hungry? No. The Government has already worsened child poverty by delaying a living wage for low-paid workers by three years. It has refused to abolish sub-minimum wages for young workers despite being told to do so by the Low Pay Commission and the ESRI. It has a People Before Profit Private Members' Bill on Committee Stage right now that could end this age discrimination and impoverishment of young people at the stroke of a pen, but it refuses to do so because it always sides with the bosses over the workers. This is who Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Lowry crew and the other right-wing Independents joining the clamour for a VAT cut represent. They all met with Adrian Cummins too and they do not care about child poverty either.

Last week, we heard that the Government is planning not even to give minimum wage workers the measly 65 cent per hour increase recommended by the Low Pay Commission. It is nowhere near enough to cover the rising cost of living for minimum wage workers. The biggest chunk of minimum wage workers work in hospitality. Not only is the Government planning to screw those workers by keeping them on unlivably low wages, but it wants to give their bosses a massive tax cut as well. Where is the money going to go? Adrian Cummins says it is a matter for each business. Translation: it is going straight into their back pockets.

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