Lenihan refuses to withdraw 'price whingers' remark

MINISTER FOR Finance Brian Lenihan came under opposition pressure to withdraw his assertion that consumers and businesses should stop “whingeing” about rising fuel prices.

The Minister made his remarks in Luxembourg on Tuesday, when he also warned that “we have to adjust our expectations” and “modify our behaviour” in the light of the fuel price increases.

In the Dáil yesterday, Labour finance spokeswoman Joan Burton asked who the Minister was addressing in his remarks, reported in The Irish Times and elsewhere.

“Perhaps people have something to whinge about: those losing their jobs, the businesses closing down, the construction workers becoming idle and, in particular, the shoppers, mothers and fathers who push trolleys around with their children . . . who find the price of a basket of goods a difficulty and find it difficult to make ends meet at present,” she added.

Insisting that Ms Burton’s question was based on a misapprehension, Mr Lenihan added: “I did not characterise any of the individuals referred to by Deputy Burton as whingers in the article, nor would I.” Pressed further, he said that “if one is prohibited from using a word in the language, I will follow Deputy Burton’s injunction and refrain from using the word again”.

Mr Lenihan added that he had been addressing the increase in oil prices, which was very serious for the people to whom Ms Burton had referred. “Given the character of the increases we have seen worldwide, it will impose on us certain disciplines,” he added.

“We have a choice. We can, as I said, complain about it, or we can decide to take the actions that will address the problems it poses for us.”

Mr Lenihan said he was in no way lessening the concern which his predecessor and himself had regarding those who were most hard-pressed.

Kieran O’Donnell (FG, Limerick East) said he took exception to the Minister’s refusal to apologise for his reference to “whingeing”, adding that businesses provided the jobs which, along with rising prices, were people’s biggest concern at present.

Mr Lenihan said that he had a full understanding of the difficulties being experienced by those referred to by Mr O’Donnell.

“Unlike him, however, I do not just live in a world of politically correct language,” he added. “I live in a world where people in our economy are experiencing real problems.”

He said that he did not believe “trading insults in respect of terminology will solve the problem”.

Later, during Opposition leaders’ questions, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said he had been disappointed to hear Mr Lenihan’s “whingeing” remark.

It was easy to dismiss people’s views “when one is being driven around in a State car for which one does not have to fork out €100 for a fill of diesel on a regular basis”.

Mr Kenny said there were innumerable examples of “commuters, hauliers, fishermen and others who have been screwed to the ground by these cost increases in petrol and diesel”. The cost of a fill of home heating oil was now €1,000, he said.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen said that the price of fuel was an international phenomenon. “There is an agreement at Eurogroup level not to unilaterally bring forward tax adjustments domestically,” he added.

“There is a need to take on the structural impact of increased energy prices across the board.”