Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions Dail Éireann — 2026-01-13 ============================================================ Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central Having no clock is a gift to all Members of the House. Could I say at the outset, ar dtús báire, ní aontaím in aon chor leis an méid atá ráite ag an Teachta. Níl aon amhras, sa bhuiséad a bhí againn le déanaí, go raibh muid ag súil go háirithe leis na daoine is boichte sa tír. Is iad príomhaidhmeanna an Rialtais ná níos mó tithe a chruthú, fostaíocht a choinneáil agus an méid fostaíochta sa tír seo a ardú. Tá sé sin á dhéanamh againn agus tá sé sin soiléir ó na figiúirí is déanaí atá tar éis teacht ar an bhfód. Is mian linn cabhair agus tacaíocht a thabhairt do dhaoine atá ag brath ar leas sóisialta, go háirithe leanaí, agus bhí sé sin le feiscint. I do not agree with the Deputy's assessment of the Government's priorities. Our overarching priority has been to sustain a very strong and robust enterprise economy, and particularly employment, because the most effective thing we can do is to create opportunities for people to gain meaningful employment in this country. By any yardstick, we have achieved that as a Government over the past number of years. We have the largest ever number of people working in this country, with over 2.8 million people working. We equally have had substantial growth in the numbers working in our country over the past number of years. That is key in terms of living standards and enabling people to cope. There are 2.825 million workers and that is a record for the Irish labour market. There is an increase of over 550,000 people between 2020 and 2025. That is a staggering achievement. When Ireland is compared with other EU member states in respect of the creation of employment and a robust economy, I think you will not find an equal. Under the IMF, in terms of the world economic outlook, the Irish economy is the fastest growing among the world's most advanced economies. That is why, in the budget, we focused on services and a substantial increase in allocations to education, disability and health. Those increases will make a difference and are making a difference in respect of those key areas. Looking at the analysis by the ESRI and others in respect of the investment in children, you will see that those on the lowest decile of income gained the most from the budget. That was our priority in the budget, particularly in regard to children and child poverty and the analysis bears that out. Equally, in respect of disability, we have made substantial progress both in terms of a record number of additional special classes for 2026 and earlier notification so children can get appropriate offers at the appropriate time and so forth. There has been a 20% increase in disability services expenditure and that is where we have put the focus. There has been a huge allocation for capital infrastructure in the budget and over the past number of years to deliver the water, energy and critical infrastructure needed to sustain the employment I spoke about earlier and to sustain our economy. Real wage growth this year will be about 3%. Wages will increase by about 5.5% and with 2% plus of inflation that means real income growth. The growth in consumption expenditure will be more than 3%. That does not reveal the type of scenario the Deputy created. We acknowledge there are cost-of-living challenges to people - there clearly are - but we have worked hard, through a range of supports and free schemes that I could list, from free books to hot school meals, that we have introduced to cushion people against the undoubted pressures of cost-of-living increases. In relation to semi-State CEOs, the Deputy knows full well that an independent body got together. There had been few increases in recent times. It was becoming difficult to recruit people to key positions within the semi-State sector, which is important for the economy also. That underpins the figures the Deputy outlined. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-13/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:30+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-01-13