Ivana Bacik: Government Has Money but No Vision on Cost of Living

Ceann Comhairle, the recall of the Dáil before the planned first phase restoration of excise duty was inevitable. It was predictable. And so the silly season August shadow boxing was over before it began. And it comes as no surprise to us that the sham fight was brought to an early close. We all know why we are here. Because government parties, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the so-called Independents, feared the return of mass protests this week. It was hard to see, indeed, how your government could have allowed the first phase of these cuts to end in the same week that schools return and commuter traffic ramps up. So we understand why the decision is being taken. But let's be clear, the decision to delay the restoration of the cuts in no way makes up for your government's failure to protect PAYE workers from the cost of living crisis. The decision today does not undo how your government sold out working people in favour of fast food chains in last year's budget, a decision which incredibly was cheerleaded by other opposition parties. You chose to use your tax base to favour private interests rather than indexing personal tax rates, bans and credits. Many PAYE workers who get a pay rise this year are likely to be worse off than they were last year because of that decision. And that's the reality of your promise to make work pay. As prices surge, hard-pressed families forego the essentials because your government has never invested adequately in universal public services, in building decent homes, in developing public infrastructure, in tackling the climate crisis and in tackling our over-reliance on fossil fuels. And so people in Ireland have been living with the consequences. It's no wonder the cost of car ownership has become a political football. But not alone are your energy costs high. The cost of groceries, of housing, the inadequacy of public and active transport, the lack of a real right to remote work. These government decisions have unleashed acute financial pressures that households are feeling every day. Not just households here. A universal refrain from tourists, from returning emigrants who cannot believe the price of things in Ireland and are always surprised that they cannot get a train to or from Dublin airport. How many people in Ireland are still far too dependent on fossil fuel, on petrol and diesel, because your government's programme for government slashed expenditure on sustainable transport in favour of roads baby roads? And you speak of a green transition but we don't see the evidence for that in the decisions you're taking in the budget. The Labour Party are clear. Continuing excise cuts indefinitely would be an inefficient, expensive and untargeted way to support struggling families. We know the Parliamentary Budget Office, the ESRI and others have shown that the benefits of this cut favour the better off. But the reality is that your government have failed to build any alternative, any better safety net for struggling families. We know low-income households spend a larger proportion of their income on energy, on home heating oil, on petrol and diesel. But this cut in excise will only be the same for them as for everyone else. And already more than half a million households are in arrears on their electricity and gas bills. And we know energy prices are surging, despite the vote likely to happen today. And while families struggle with their bills, the elephant in the room, literally, the data centres, which soak up what renewable energy capacity we do produce, leading to further price increases and indeed threatening energy security. And let's be clear about that too. So, while we will support the measure today, as a measure that will support families, we do recognise, and I think the government also need to recognise, that this budget provides an opportunity to do more to support hard-pressed families. To provide some sort of plan, some sort of structured and developed plan to help households through, not just this winter, but future winters. What we need to see, Tánaiste, is a plan for targeted energy credits, as the Labour Party has sought. We need to see targeted support for home energy upgrades, to give people a real chance of that green transition you speak of. We need to see real commitments to ramp up solar power capacity, for that massive swing to EVs that is required so urgently. And indeed, we need to see a commitment to tackle the cost of living crisis, through indexation of tax bans, again as Labour has sought. We need to see a cap on the cost of childcare, €200 a month. We need to see real, tangible measures, Kean Corlew, that would give working families real breathing space, real certainty to plan for the future. Our political system was able to develop a COVID wage subsidy scheme overnight, to save jobs and businesses. That system must be capable, with the right political decision making, to ensure the targeting of relief for households most in need of a breather. A government with the resources to spend billions on subsidising fossil fuels, essentially, should be able to afford to address the systemic problems that are driving inequality and that are exacerbating the climate crisis. Your government has money aplenty, but no vision. And that's the real problem with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. No vision. And you talk of prudence, but your annual budgets are a work of fiction. What we've seen is massive overruns, being papered over with supplementary estimates, averaging €2 billion each year. Public finances being treated like Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael's personal piggy bank, not a tool for building a better society. You offer cash-as-the-solution, short-term, stopgap solutions like this, every time, without asking yourselves what the problem is. The problem is a government without vision, without a vision to change this country, to take the real and necessary climate action, to tackle the climate crisis. Without the vision to tackle inequality, to build a more equal society, to support those in disadvantage, those in energy arrears, those in a housing crisis. To be honest with you, you're hearing from people around Ireland. You know this. They can't afford to cover the basics. They're facing high rents, high bills, high childcare costs, inadequate public transport. And you expect them to be grateful for another untargeted subsidy to fossil fuels that may barely keep pace with inflation. We know one in three older people living alone is at risk of poverty. We know that more than 95,000 children are growing up in a household that cannot afford everyday items. They deserve long-term strategic policies to raise the social floor and tackle inequality. Your government has the money to do this. But to date we've seen no mission from this government bigger than merely putting out fires. No vision other than buying the short-term support of interest groups, of papering over cracks in the system. And the need to extend the excise cuts today is a symptom of a wider problem. A failure by your government to plan ahead, a failure to develop a vision to tackle the real problems facing households across Ireland. What we need to see is a vision, a vision for tackling inequality, for tackling the cost of living crisis and for tackling the climate crisis too. We're lacking that currently from your government, Tánaiste, and we need to see it. This budget should be a wake-up call for your government. And certainly for the Labour Party, we'll be putting forward an alternative vision in our alternative budget. And we look forward to a fuller debate in the weeks and months ahead on that.