Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-20
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

Aontaím leis an Teachta go bhfuil cúrsaí an tsaoil an-dainséarach, deacair faoi láthair agus go bhfuil dúshláin an-mhóra amach romhainn agus roimh mhuintir na hEorpa i gcoitinne. Is maith an rud é go ndearnamar an-chuid ó thaobh cúrsaí eacnamaíochta de agus ó thaobh an gheilleagair. Tá an geilleagar i bhfad níos láidre anois ná mar a bhí.
We are in very uncharted territory and the situation is serious and potentially very grave for the European and Irish economies and, indeed, for the United States economy, if a trade war were to break out and if we have a series of tariffs and counter-tariffs. In the latest iteration of this in the aftermath of the so-called Liberation Day last year, Europe prepared different scenarios in terms of tariffs. Those scenarios are still in place and can be deployed, if necessary.
We are very conscious of this and the Deputy was correct that this affects people's jobs and their capacity to look after themselves and their families. That has always been my number one interest because in the conduct of foreign policy, we have national interests and the protection of livelihoods and workers is a key national interest in terms of how we contribute to these issues and how we help to try and resolve these issues. It is good that we are members of the European Union, by the way. At moments like this, the value of being a Single Market and being in a European Union should not be underestimated. Others are not and find it more difficult and more challenging as a result.
The first principle that we adhere to is European Union solidarity in terms of fellow member states. Second, I recall that in the context of the budget, we focused on infrastructure. We said we wanted to deliver more and we allocated money through the national development plan to water, public transport ad the electricity grid with potentially up to €18 billion to be invested. We got criticised because we did not do the once-off packages, which could have been €2 billion or €3 billion and which Labour wanted us to do. Now it is criticising us for not being budgetarily or fiscally prepared. It is a bit rich, to be frank. I argue that we are better-----

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-20/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:31+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-20