Deputy Mary Lou McDonald- speech from 9 May 2023

Thank you. Workers and families continue to be fleeced by a cost-of-living crisis that is out of control. People's finances are pushed to the very brink. They are hammered by sky-high energy bills, soaring food bills, runaway rents, mortgage interest rate hikes, and a cost-of-living crisis that is hitting them from all sides. Almost a quarter of household gas customers found themselves in arrears in the first three months of this year, and as energy credits run out, the number in electricity arrears is increasing again. Just so we are clear about the scale of what is happening, that means 160,399 domestic customers in gas arrears, and 199,790 domestic electricity arrears. It is an absolutely staggering situation. And yes, Taoiseach, you opposed Sinn Fein's proposal to cut and cap rip-off energy bills. You also blocked our plan to provide mortgage relief for struggling homeowners. You refused any plans to cut rent or ban rent increases. And yet, households remain under huge pressure, and yet your government sits on your hands. So tonight, Sinn Fein brings forward a plan for real action on food and grocery bills. And I think the government should back this plan, Dijak. Inflation, as you know, in Irish supermarkets is the highest ever recorded, and shoppers are set to see their annual grocery bills rise by 1200 euros. That is a very big sum, and people's incomes just won't stretch that far in many cases. So many people are going hungry, pensioners are skipping meals, and with the school holidays now fast approaching, some families don't know how they will feed their children this summer. So this can't continue, I am sure you will agree, Taoiseach. The plan from Sinn Fein has essentially three elements. Firstly, it would ensure that savings made by supermarkets due to falling input costs are passed on to consumers by cutting grocery prices. Secondly, it would instruct the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission to investigate possible price gouging in the sector. And crucially, it would allow for an increase in social welfare and pension rates to protect people from food poverty. And these measures would make a real difference, Taoiseach, in the here and now for people. Because you can't expect people to wait five months until the budget for relief. Kicking the can down the road, turning a blind eye to the huge pressure people are under is not an option. So I am asking that you take action to shield households from this latest hit in the cost of living storm. Time and again we have brought forward measures, and every time Taoiseach you have turned your face against them, you have rejected every solution that has been offered up. So there is an immediacy in all of this Taoiseach, as I am sure you will agree. The Government must take sensible, targeted measures to give support to those that need it. Because people are finding it difficult to stay afloat now, and they need help now. So my questions to you Taoiseach are these. Firstly, will you back Sinn Féin's plan to cut food costs that will come before the House this evening? And what else Taoiseach do you propose to do to help families weather the storm of this cost of living crisis? And I make specific reference again to the hundreds of thousands of households that now find themselves in gas and electricity arrears. Thank you, Deputy Macdonald. Thank you Deputy Macdonald. At the outset, on behalf of the Government, I want to acknowledge that we are facing a cost of living crisis. We have seen inflation reach very high levels in the last year or so. Thankfully, inflation is now slowing down, but that is not the same as prices falling. Prices remain very high, and a lot of people and a lot of families are struggling with those bills, and everyone in Government understands that. As I often say, when it comes to any household bill, there are three elements to it. There is how much you get paid, how much you get to keep after tax, and how far the money goes. Government is helping with all of those aspects. If you take pay, for example, we had an increase in the national minimum wage this year, which is above the rate of inflation for this year. Most people on low pay will get the knock-on increase that those on the lowest pay get. We also have a public sector pay deal, and there will be a further pay deal, I imagine, negotiated before the end of the year. That is the pay element, pay increasing. The second element is people being able to keep more of what they earn. The rent tax credit is an example of that. Nearly 200,000 people have claimed that credit. Many more can. It is worth about €1,000 to a couple, €2,000 if you claim it over the two years. That is helping people with the cost of living. And, of course, a reduction in income tax as well, worth about €800 a year to somebody on the average income, €1,600 to a couple, and your party, as you know, opposed that. We are helping as well with reducing the cost of living, a reduction in the cost of childcare, a very significant one, for example, at the start of this year. Reductions in the cost of public transport, reductions in the cost of school transport, reductions in the cost of buying medicines. All of those things have been done in the past couple of months and are pure examples of what the Government is doing to help people with the cost of living. It has not stopped there. You mentioned welfare, for example, which is in your motion before the House today. We had a €200 welfare payment to pensioners and people in receipt of weekly payments that were paid only last week. That will help people with their bills and their arrears. It does not stop there. In June, for example, there will be an extra €100 for every child in the country. That is not means tested, because we acknowledge that middle-income families are struggling with the cost of living too. For those who need it the most, there is an increase in the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance, paid at the same rate as last year, and every child will benefit from free school books in September. Again, that is for all families, including middle-income families, because we know they are struggling too, and then comes the Budget when we can do more. So there is not a month that does not pass, Deputy, when we are not doing something to help people with the cost of living, because we understand that families are suffering and people are struggling with those bills. In relation to the price of groceries, which you mentioned, Deputy, or rather Minister, Richmond will meet with the Retail Forum, I think, tomorrow, and is going to meet with producers like farmers the day after, and he will be passing on a very clear message from government. When input prices, like energy costs, went up, retailers increased their prices. That is understandable. Your input costs go up, you have to pass on some of that increase to your customers. But when input costs go down, we expect you to pass on those reductions to your customers, and we are making that very clear to the retailers, to the big supermarkets, to the shops, and also to the energy and gas companies. You put prices up when your costs went up, now your costs are coming down, we expect you to bring down prices. We are starting to see a bit of that, but not enough of that. In summary, Deputy, I am the last one. We are a very rich one. We are the rich one, a rich one, rich one, rich one, rich one, and rich one. We are rich one, rich one and rich one. We are rich one to our daily. We are rich one. We are rich one. I beg, Nia Smough, take care of the talk. What is that additional support that will be coming then? Because from your answer, and by the way, the Unite Trade Union research published last week reflects that in real terms, wages have in fact fallen by approximately 76 euros per week. But leaving that aside, I gave you the figures, 160,399 households in gas arrears, almost 200,000 in electricity arrears. And yet when I put the question to you and I ask you, what will you do now, in the here and now, you answer me as though matters had been solved and resolved. This is a very expensive place to live in. I mean, I'm sure you're aware of that. Ask anybody. This is a very, very expensive, that was the case before the cost of living spike hit households. So I want to ask you again, we're bringing forward a package of measures this evening in respect of groceries and food costs. Will you support that? If you don't support that bar, the Minister sending encouraging messages, what are you going to do to ensure compliance from the retail sector and the energy sector? And what about all of these households in gas and electricity areas? What are you saying to them now, Gleeshock? What is the Government proposing to do now? As I said earlier, perhaps I didn't say earlier, we're not going to oppose the motion that you've put down this week. We don't agree with all of it, but we think there are some things that we're doing already and can be done. There are other suggestions that are worthy of consideration. So while we won't be agreeing to everything you propose, we won't be opposing the motion in the round in the House because a lot of it is being done already and a lot of it can be done in the future. And I mentioned the fact that just last week, 200 euros was paid to pensioners and people in receipt of weekly social welfare payments to help them with bills like electricity and gas, a further payment to help families coming in only a few weeks' time. You're correct to say, as is Unite the Trade Union, that real incomes fell last year. That is, prices rose faster than incomes did. That was the first year that was the case in a very long time. And it won't be the case this year. We're confident this year that we'll see a real increase in incomes again. We expect inflation to be around 5% this year. For example, national minimum wage going up by 7% this year. Public sector pay deal to be negotiated as well. So we expect to see real incomes again rise this year, as they have in previous years, which means that most people will be better off. And you are right to say, Deputy, that the cost of living in Ireland is high and has been high for a very long time, maybe 30% or 40% higher than the EU average. But our incomes are also 30% to 40% higher than the EU average, and that needs to be borne in mind as well.