Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

4. To ask the Minister for Finance in the context of rising costs and higher prices hitting households, to outline the surplus that the State will run in 2025; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28805/25]

Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I remind Deputies that only one person is to stand in the Chamber at a time.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Will the Minister outline the surplus the State will run in 2025?

That is in the context of the Government ruling out a cost-of-living package in the budget. We have heard this from the Minister and the Taoiseach. It is a reflection of a Government that is out of touch and that does not understand the real pressures ordinary people are under. This is despite surpluses of billions of euro being recorded not only this year but in previous years. People are really struggling because the actions of the Government have left them high and dry in some cases.

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

When it comes to inflation, it is important to emphasise the reason so many people are still struggling with it, and I accept it is a challenge for many, is not because of the actions of the Government. Inflation within our economy and the way it has gone up has not been caused by the Government of Ireland. It has been caused by factors that are outside of our control, in many cases. I refer to the cost of energy and what has happened with supply chains across the world.

To answer the Deputy's question, we are currently - and I say "currently" - projecting a general Government surplus for this year of €8.7 billion, nearly all of which is caused by the corporate tax receipts most Members of this House, including I believe Deputy Doherty, have always acknowledged are highly volatile and that we cannot depend upon them.

The reason I say we cannot do the one off measures we have done in the past again is that while the cost of living is still high, the rate of inflation we have seen that justified us doing those packages has fallen dramatically. When we brought in the various large cost-of-living measures, it was done in anticipation they would be one-off. That turned out not to be the case but what has turned out to be the case is that inflation has fallen. We were in a situation where inflation was well in excess of 10% and growing so quickly but now it will be, I hope, between 1% and 2% and growing at a far more normal level.

I accept prices are high and that this is a challenge for so many people but the rate of price increases has fallen dramatically. What the Government will aim to do is to provide the support we normally do through, for example, social welfare measures that feature in every budget as opposed to the repetition of measures which if they became normal, I would be concerned they would not be affordable.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Some inflation is absolutely beyond our control. Other high prices are as result of price gouging or Government failures. Our pillar banks had combined profits of €5 billion last year, much of that came from the fact homeowners and savers were short-changed. We have double digit rent increases. New rents outside of Dublin are rising by 9% with 12 counties experiencing double digit rent inflation increases. That is because the Government will not enact our legislation to ban rent increases. We have crippling childcare costs despite the Government's commitment to reduce them. We still do not have a plan to do that. The Minister's party promised a plan within 100 days and that is another promise that has been broken. There are eye watering insurance costs and the Government is not doing anything to ensure that savings resulting from reforms are passed on. We have the highest electricity costs in Europe. This is also at a time when we will record significant surpluses in the region of €8 billion to €9 billion each year and the Government is leaving people high and dry because they need support at this time and a cost-of-living package is absolutely necessary.

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

It is not the case to say that some inflation is caused by forces outside our control. Looking at the inflation we have gone through in recent years most of it has been caused by issues outside of our control. What has happened with the cost of food and energy has been cause by the awful war on the people of Ukraine and the huge changes that have happened in supply chains and the way goods are supplied across the world after the pandemic.

I accept there are issues that definitely contribute to the cost of living and that develop within our own economy. However, I make the case that if we accept that corporate tax receipts are absolutely at risk, because of the global issues we now confronting and that have not been raised yet in the Dáil today but which we discussed at the finance committee last night, it would not be proper for me to use receipts and money I know may not be permanent to fund measures that could become permanent.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Yet it was proper for the Minister for Finance to sign off on the first piece of legislation he introduced, which was to give a big increase to junior Ministers and increase the number of super junior Ministers, which is something we are challenging in the courts. Inflation is also caused by the Government. When the Government decided to increase the carbon tax, it put up the price of petrol and diesel. It put up the price of home heating oil and gas, which the Government did last month. These are things that are under the Government's control. When the Government decides not to ban rent increases, inflation goes up and families are under pressure. These are things that could be under control if the Government would intervene. Given that the Government has not taken these measures, families are struggling now. We see from the CSO and from surveys by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and others that here are many families who simply cannot even put a hot dinner on the table.

I ask the Minister for Finance, in the context of recording surpluses in excess of €17 billion this year and next year, that there would be a cost-of-living package, not to spend €17 billion on it but to recognise people have been short-changed by the Government and to recognise there is a need for one in this year's budget.

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Referring to being short-changed, if the Deputy looks at the measures the Government has brought in recent years, the various one off measures brought in on budget day did make a difference to people at a time during which the cost of living was so high and inflation was going up. In regard to the carbon tax the Deputy referred to, it is also the case that carbon tax funded the allocation of €951 million to various measures that are helping not only with fuel poverty but with the transition to a lower carbon future. Every day of the week, Members from the Deputy's party look for more of these measures while being against the taxes that pay for them. I have to be honest in acknowledging that if we want to invest more in a greener and lower carbon future, we need to have a way of paying for it. The Deputy does not take the same approach.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I do.

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

He has not explained how we will pay for this.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I have.

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

He is against the carbon tax.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I absolutely-----

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

What the Deputy is proposing here is that we use receipts that we fear might not be available to us in the future to fund permanent measures. Incidentally-----

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

No. I did not say that.

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

-----if we had been implementing the measures proposed by the Deputy in the past-----

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I did not say that.

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

-----we would not have this surplus available to us at all.