Mary Lou McDonald Accuses Government of Failing Workers

Welcome to the students of Holy Faith in Glasnevin who are in the public gallery you're very very very welcome. Taoiseach, there is real anger amongst workers and families pushed to the brink by the cost of living, people working paying their way and yet falling further behind with each passing week and we now finally have a very frank admission from your own Minister for Public Expenditure, Jack Chambers, he now admits that last year's budget in his own words didn't give workers a break. So there it is, your own Minister finally saying out loud what we have been telling you for six months, what you have been denying for six months, that your 9.4 billion euro budget did absolutely nothing for ordinary working people, in fact it left them worse off. That budget drove the deep anger and frustration that we now see across the state. As prices were rising, as bills were mounting, while working families were under the most severe pressure, you withdrew support, you abandoned your election promises one after another and you left people high and dry. You had the resources Taoiseach and you made the wrong call and now the consequences are everywhere. Workers squeezed, households stretched to breaking point, people cutting back on basics and making impossible choices, wondering how they get through the week, not to mind the next month. And Taoiseach, your own Minister now admits the truth. Will you do the same? Will you admit that you got it wrong? Will you accept that your poor decision-making left working people exposed to the full force of this cost-of-living crisis? Because let's be clear, you didn't just fail to help people, you made things worse. Workers were punished but others did very well. Corporate landlords, the banks, big funds were protected. Those at the top were well looked after. That was your political choice, that was your personal priority. You withdrew supports and then you piled on the costs and increased the charges. School transport costs up, junior and leaving cert exam fees reintroduced and all of us landing on those same people, the workers and families who are already struggling. Your government doesn't listen, doesn't understand, is out of touch with the reality of people's lives and Taoiseach, your Minister now says that everything is on the table for the next budget. Everything. Let's test that. Is your promise to cut the USC on the table a promise that you broke? Because for low and middle-income workers the USC is a constant drag on wages. Every extra shift, every extra hour work taxed again. It punishes work and eats into pay packets. It's a shame that Jack Chambers doesn't want any of you to go to work in the next six months. We had a deal with you six months ago. You can't go back on that now. You have to go on your own. So Taoiseach, so having failed workers last October, are you seriously asking them now to wait until next January to see any support from you? Because the crisis is now, it's immediate and it's being felt every single day at kitchen tables across the country. People cannot wait. First of all Deputy, public expenditure as a result of the budget last year will rise by 8.6%. That's not failing anybody. That's a very very high increase in investment in public services that all workers benefit from and families and people generally benefit from. So investment in education, in health, in childcare, right across the board. But most critically in housing. Because the number one issue facing our country remains housing. And we put unprecedented investment into housing so that young working people could benefit from significant supports from Help to Buy, to the First Home Scheme, to rental tax credit, a range of supports to increase housing supplies so that young people could be in a position to buy houses that they could afford and rent. And we will continue to relentlessly pursue the housing question. We also in the budget critically put huge investment into infrastructure. We need new roads, metro, public transport. All of that helps workers. That's the strategic decision we took to make sure that there would be unprecedented investment in water, in grids, so for the electricity and energy, and in terms of road infrastructure, public transport. You ignore all of that of course because you don't adopt a strategic approach to jobs or to the economy. And remember the most important thing always in life is that we have an economy that can provide jobs to people. 57,000 extra jobs last year were created in our economy, which is for working people. Jobs that will enable them to navigate life, notwithstanding the pressures. Now we didn't forecast the war in the Middle East. And I've listened to you yesterday and today, and you ignored the fact that there's a war in the Middle East, which is directly impacting fuel prices, which has led to the increases on fuel and other issues as well. It will filter into other parts of the economy, which is impacting on workers and on families more generally. And that's why we've announced a 750 million package, which will help workers and which will help particularly people and farmers, will help contractors, because food production is very important, and in terms of the general exercise duties will help also. But also in the budget we increased the state pensions by 10 euros. We increased child support payments. You ignore that. The biggest increase ever. Children 12 plus get 16 euros extra, or the families through the parents, and children under 12 an extra 8 euro to 58 a week, 78 a week in terms of children over 12. And that was to deal with the issue of child poverty, because we did prioritize child poverty along with housing and infrastructure, and we we prioritized disability. And an extra 500 million was allocated to disability services, and we increased the domiciliary care allowance by an extra 20 euros. So we made choices to support and target our resources at those most in need, and those sectors that needed significant investment. And in terms of fuel, we increased the fuel allowance by 5 euro per week. We've extended it by a month, and we brought 50,000 workers, working families, into the fuel allowance for the first time ever, which will help them in some shape or form and alleviate pressure from them. We also, in terms of energy, extended the reduction of that. We've reduced that to 9% on gas and electricity. We've now extended that out to December 2030. We've record funding for home energy upgrades, which benefits many, many workers. 558 million allocated in the budget. And you mentioned education and schooling and so on. We now have free GP care for children under the age of eight. Every individual aged 70 and over has automatic eligibility for a GV visitor card. And we have free school books and free hot school meals across every single school in the country, which benefits workers, working families, and society at large. Well, your response, again, Taoiseach, is very, very telling. Because you ignore the immediate reality of people's lives. You ignore the fact that hundreds of thousands of households can't make their electricity bills. That families the length and breadth of the country are struggling with their rent, struggling with their grocery bills, struggling to put bread on the table. You don't want to know that there is nothing strategically positive about leaving people in poverty. There is nothing good about creating that level of stress, that level of hardship for families and workers across the country. Your own minister accepts. He has said out loud what we all know, that your last budget failed working people and families. He has said and accepted that. How very telling that you can't accept that. You turn your face away from the people that you should serve. You turn your face away from the reality of their lives. And it seems no matter how hard it gets, Fianna Fáil and Micheál Martin are quite happy to let people struggle on. Well, people won't tolerate that Taoiseach, and you will get your response again. But there is food on the table, and you know that, and there is no risk that there will be a brisket on the table across the country, and on the face of the earth. There is food on the table and prices are rising. There is food on that table. You've ignored the fact, and failed to mention the fact, the war in the Middle East has been a significant factor in the increase in fuel prices. Everybody knows that except you. And equally, you attacked measures in the budget that targeted poorest working families and the poorest in society. You didn't believe in targeting. You want universality across the board. And you have the similar approach to the Liz Truss approach in terms of the energy question. We have, we have, we have, sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you Deputy, and you always have an inability to allow other people to speak because you don't like to speak. And all I'm simply saying is we know people are under pressure. That's why we brought in the 750 million package. That's why we brought in a 2 billion social protection package to protect pensioners and to protect workers who needed support. And we will do more Deputy, and we will do more in the next budget as we did in previous budgets as well.