Joe Conway (Independent)

I add my voice to that of Senator Craughwell earlier when he asked the Leader - I am asking this as well - that we request the Minister for Defence to come into the House and give us a decent debate on the defence budget, as exposed last week, and on our defence of our sovereign nation, given our non-aligned status.

An príomhphointe atá á dhéanamh agam ar maidin ná tagairt a dhéanamh don mbriseadh a tugadh sa bhuiséad an tseachtain seo caite d'óstlanna agus do bhialanna. I refer to the amount of money that was set aside as a tax break or otherwise for the hospitality sector, the close to €700 million a year in one year. It is strange to see this come in because wages in the hospitality sector are rising and so is employment. A Big Mac in Waterford at Christmas in 2022 would have cost €4.30 and a Big Mac meal would have cost €7.20. This month, which is less than three years later, that Big Mac will cost €7 in Waterford and the meal will cost €10.90, a 60% increase in less than three years. In the Tower Hotel at Christmas in 2022, you would have paid €5.50 for a pint of Guinness. That is now €6.20, a 30% increase and well ahead of the rate of inflation.

There is talk about Simon Harris morning. Simon Harris and the Government got it seriously wrong in giving this break to the hospitality sector. A sum of €700 million in a year would have given two winter fuel rebates to poor households next winter. To my mind, going for a pint or eating in a restaurant is the comfortable choice of the comfortably off, and people who are suffering fuel poverty do not have that choice. This was a bad call from the Tánaiste and a bad call from the Government.