Mini-budget must be brought forward by Government ‘right now’ says Sinn Féin

A mini-budget must be brought forward by the Government “right now” as the cost of living crisis is pushing “more and more people” to the edge of poverty, Sinn Féin has said.

The party’s deputy leader Pearse Doherty said the growing need for food banks was “stark testament” to the reality people are facing across the State.

The Donegal TD, who was speaking during Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil on Wednesday, said a food bank in the Midlands was feeding up to 5,000 people and they expected this figure to rise to 15,000 over the coming period.

“Those who never thought they would need such help are now standing in queues waiting to be fed by charities,” he said.

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“People are working long hours and the soaring costs means that they simply cant get by. It is soul destroying.”

Mr Doherty said comments from the Taoiseach on Tuesday that Europe was entering “fairly rocky territory in the years ahead” and “a different era” in terms of pricing around fossil fuels were “astonishing”.

“Workers and families have been walking the rocky road of extortionate fuel and energy costs for the best part of the year now,” Mr Doherty said.

“To tell people, as you did, who are already struggling to pay their bills that they will have to tighten their belts even further is painfully out of touch, while at the same time ruling out from you Taoiseach further Government action until October at the very earliest.”

‘Do what’s necessary’

Mr Doherty said people couldn’t “catch their breath” and that the Government needed to “do what’s necessary” and bring forward a mini-budget to help tackle rising costs.

In response, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said it shouldn’t be astonishing to “tell the truth”.

“What I said yesterday was telling the truth about a new era of an increase in pricing around fossil fuels and the reason for that is that this week, we will mark the grim milestone of 100 days since Russia’s unjustified, illegal and immoral invasion of Ukraine,” Mr Martin said.

He said the war in Ukraine had brought “extraordinary” economic cost and disruption which Mr Doherty didn’t reference in his contribution.

Mr Martin said President Putin wanted to create an energy, food and migration crisis. He said people were under “a lot of pressure” because of the “deliberate policies of the Putin regime”.

The Taoiseach said the Government had responded with more than would be in a normal budget and would develop a collective response to deal with the cost of living crisis.

He said one thing that could not be done was “chase inflation away month after month by a billion or €2 billion a month”.

“That is not a sustainable pathway over time. What you are proposing is to create even further inflation,” he told Mr Doherty.