The Tánaiste has ruled out a mini-budget as Sinn Féin and Labour called for immediate assistance for householders and PAYE workers.
Simon Harris said “the Government can’t come in here every Thursday” and “do another budget” – but he did not rule out taking further measures to ease the cost-of-living pressures on families.
During Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil, Sinn Féin finance spokesman Pearse Doherty said the issue wasn’t about money but about political choices and the Government “is choosing not to act”.
He said the European Commission had urged member states to come up with measures to ease the burden of electricity prices, and asked why the Government is “standing back”.
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The spring economic forecast showed “the money is there”, he said, adding that a fraction of the surplus would make a real difference for ordinary people.
The Government is telling people to “wait for the budget, wait till next year, wait while the crisis deepens. But people cannot wait, because the crisis is here right now”.
Doherty said: “Never have we seen more people in the history of the State that can’t pay their electricity bills. On top of that, we have fuel prices increasing. We have groceries increasing. We have rents going up. We have insurance going up. We have student fees going up.”
He said the Tánaiste needed to act now. “You need to bring forward an emergency cost of living package that supports families in the here and now, because people can’t wait for you to get your act together in the budget in October for measures to be implemented in January”.
Harris said the Government had introduced one of the largest support packages in the EU and the Government did not wait for the European Commission to come up with a list of ideas to deal with the crisis.
He welcomed the commission’s acknowledgment that it needed to give member states flexibility and that the measures should be temporary. “I do think we have to stay agile and flexible during this crisis, because it’s hard to predict where the global economy will be in six weeks, let alone six months. And that’s why our current measures run to the end of July.”
“We can’t come in here every Thursday and effectively propose that we do another budget,” he added.
Labour finance spokesman Ged Nash called for a mini-budget and asked: “Why do PAYE workers have to wait over six months for relief when protesters only had to wait for a week”. The Government had found the €500 million for sectoral interests but had “blanked” PAYE workers and had cut the energy credits which families relied on as they face bills of up to €500 at a time.
The Louth TD said there were many policy options available to the Government, including “a windfall tax on energy profits, price controls, energy vouchers, social tariffs and income support schemes for households”.
The Tánaiste told him, “We won’t be bringing forward a mini-budget in many ways, we did introduce a three-quarters of a billion euro package”.
He said hauliers and farming contractors had “very significant fuel bills” and it made sense to make sure supply chains and certain sectors were kept going.
He pointed out the Department of Finance chief economist estimated inflation would be 0.6 per cent less in each of the months of May, June and July than it would otherwise have been.
The Tánaiste said “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 following the meeting last week with Leef (Labour Employer Economic Forum), “what we need to do is have a much more intensive process now to engage with workers, their representatives”.
