Ged Nash challenges the Tánaiste over government choices that, he says, have left hundreds of thousands of PAYE workers worse off. He sets out alternatives - windfall taxes, targeted energy credits and income tax indexation - and demands immediate action.
Main accusation: Ged Nash accuses Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Independents of prioritising sectoral VAT cuts and withdrawing once-off payments and energy credits, decisions that left families exposed to rising grocery and energy bills. He argues those choices were paid for by PAYE workers and are now failing as energy and food costs rise.
Policy alternatives proposed: Nash offers concrete policy options from the EU Commission toolbox: a windfall tax on energy profits, price controls, energy vouchers, social tariffs and targeted income supports. He specifically proposes reversing the back‑pulse, introducing a windfall tax and using funds for a targeted €400 energy credit for average income households and restoring income tax indexation.
Government response and debate: The Tánaiste defended the recent package, saying it lowers inflation across coming months and that supports for key sectors were necessary to protect supply chains. Nash counters that blanket VAT cuts disproportionately benefit big hospitality interests and that PAYE workers have waited months for relief while other sectors received quicker help.
Consequences and next steps: Nash presses for a mini‑budget or targeted measures now to help working families facing high bills this summer and calls for intensified engagement with workers, unions and business groups to shape immediate relief. The exchange sets the stakes for upcoming budget decisions and public debate over who benefits from recent government measures.
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Tánaiste, hundreds of thousands of working families are left asking why have they been left behind by your government? They're left wondering what will it take for you to act to help them? Which piece of road or what port should they blockade before you take notice? And over the last six months, Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Independents made deliberate decisions that left those workers behind and worse off. You decided on playing city VAT cuts for the fast food firms, paid for by PAYE workers because you chose not to index income tax bans and credits. And only now does Fianna Fáil appear to have a problem with that stroke. You made a decision to withdraw critical once-off payments and energy credits. For three years families relied on a couple of hundred euros to ease the burden of Europe's highest electricity prices. But you left them at a loss with less money in their pockets and they're getting bills now for three or four or five hundred euros a time. And now that decision is coming back to haunt you and your colleagues. The Iran war will nearly double inflation this year. Construction and food prices will rise further, making a complete mockery of your VAT cut misadventure. Grocery prices were already increasing at over 6%. Electricity prices will rise even more, adding 150 euro to average bills. Bills that were already sky high. And before Easter you and other members of the government were talking about tax cuts for the richest in our society on inheritance and for special investment accounts. And quite frankly that was tone deaf. Once again ignoring the needs of the many who are struggling to pay the bills. And now it seems you've realised finally the error of your ways. In the last week you've flown a lot of budget kites including income tax cuts, energy credits and increased retrofit grants, you name it. But why do PAYE workers have to wait over six months for relief when protesters only had to wait for a week? Now those sectors did need some support. But why are the needs of the real drivers of the economy being blanked by you? Yesterday the Commission laid out the measures you can take to address the impact of the energy crisis. There are many policy options available to you in this toolbox. A windfall tax on energy profits, price controls, energy vouchers, social tariffs and income support schemes for households. The people know there's a massive surplus. Why? Because you keep telling us. They also know that we cannot spend it all at once. And they certainly know that services need to be paid for. And they saw that you very quickly found £750 million over the last month for sectoral interests. But they need help now. And there are ways for you to responsibly do a mini-budget now to provide real relief for PAYE workers. You can reverse the back pulse, introduce a windfall tax on energy companies and use the money for targeted energy credits of €400 for average income households. The income tax indexation you promised in the general election but abandoned last October. Real supports for families with grocery bills and school costs. And you can use existing laws to place maximum price orders on home heating oils. So, Tánaiste, will you now move to help working people with a mini-budget? So we won't be bringing forward a mini-budget, Deputy Nash, but in many ways we did introduce a three quarters of a billion euro package, the largest or second largest in the European Union and two and a half times the European average only less than two weeks ago. Let me say I take some of the points that you make around sectoral interests versus everybody. I think there's something in that. But let me just make two other points regarding that. Firstly, there are some sectors where it simply makes sense when there's a fuel crisis to prioritise an intervention. And we're not all the same in terms of our fuel consumption. So if you're a haulier, you have a very significant fuel bill. If you're a farm contractor, a very significant fuel bill. So it did make sense for all of us to make sure we keep our supply chains and certain crucial sectors of the Irish economy going. I think you and I disagree on that. You acknowledge some sectors need help. But beyond that, I would make this point too. The package that we brought forward, everybody benefits from. Everybody. And I'll explain why. Because the Chief Economist in the Department of Finance, and he said this on the day we published the spring forecast, has estimated that inflation, whatever it ends up being, and we all want to suppress any increase, but whatever it ends up being will be about 0.6% lower each of the months, May, June and July than it would have otherwise been. So that person that you quite rightly mentioned, we all know them, who's in the supermarket and worried about the cost of food going up. Well, obviously, by keeping inflation down through the package, we are having a positive impact on what that supermarket bill would have been otherwise. On VAT9, and you've gotten a lot of mileage since the last budget out of the old burger. Well, I want to ask you about this because, through the chair, of course, but I want to ask you about this, Cian Corlea, because I doubt when you go into, and I was in your constituency this week, I doubt when you go into your local cafe, we all have a local cafe in our community, I doubt when you go into the local cafe in Drogheda and you look at the man or woman behind the counter, you say, good afternoon, Mr. Baron, or good afternoon, Mrs. Baron, because you know in your heart of hearts, you know in your heart of hearts, because you were a former minister in the Department of Enterprise, you know in your heart of hearts that the overwhelming majority of hospitality businesses are small businesses. You know that they're the heartbeat of rural and regional Ireland. You know they're employing four people or five people or 10 people. And you know that whatever the merits or demerits, and I accept we have a full different policy difference, but whatever the merits or demerits of our position of the budget, I'd actually argue it's even more essential that we reduce their cost base now. Because what would you be saying to me today if we hadn't done anything to support the hospitality sector in the budget? So a sector that employs well over 140,000 people directly does need our support. I'm not flying any kites, but when I get asked a question, I try to answer it. And I was asked a question, will there be a personal income tax package in the budget? Yes, there will. And I want to make another point too, because you've raised this with me many times. I don't want, the country that we saw in recent weeks around blockades, and that's not who we are as a people. We all know we're better than that as a people. There's people angry, there's people frustrated, there's really, I get that. But we do have to have really good structures for engagement in place with the democratically constituted national bodies. And we have had a very good meeting in the last week of LEAF with ICTU and others. They've made points not too dissimilar to yours. And I do think there is a need to intensify that engagement in the weeks ahead. Deputy Nash, to respond. Taoiseach, there are other and better ways of targeting supports to businesses that may need the support. Not a blanket VAT cut that's going to disproportionately benefit the Borger Barons, Ronald McDonald and his friends. And that is a very poor use of taxpayers' money. And it's being paid for directly by PAY workers. And that's the reality. And you are now trying to retroactively justify that by the increased energy costs that businesses will be experiencing. And I don't, simply do not buy that. And you're going to have to explain with great difficulty to workers who are going to continue to find it very difficult to pay the bills this summer when the VAT cut is introduced in July, why you're continuing to justify that. Lobbyists do a great job for the hospitality business. They did a number on you. Halyards do a great job in terms of how they acted and got you to respond. They've done the business for the people they represent. It's about time now that you and your Fianna Fáil and independent colleagues did the business for working people. We won't get into it, but you know Ronald McDonald doesn't own the McDonald's in Bray. You know there's franchises in relation to many of these places as well. So it's just important to point that out too. Whether it's a franchise or whether it's a small independent, there's hard working decent people running these places too. And they employ PAYE workers too. And I'll stand in any of these cafes, any of these restaurants, any of these rural pubs that serve food and I will say to people that the reduction we have brought about from July on VAT is a reduction in the cost base of that business. And at a time of real pressure, I think reducing costs on business is good. But we can disagree on that point and agree on a broader point. There is a need to have broader engagement with wider society and their representative groups and how we get ourselves through this moment of challenge. And I found, and I don't mean they weren't tough on us and I certainly don't mean they agree with us and everything, but I found the engagement we had with ICTU, the engagement we had with IBEC, the engagement we had with members of the LEAF to be very good. And what we need to do is have a much more intensive process now to engage with workers, their representatives and business representative bodies in the weeks ahead. That's our intention.
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