Cost of Living Issues
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-26
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Simon Harris (FG), Wicklow

The Deputy is doing it again. The Deputy is speaking for the people of Ireland. We both went to Galway and we put our cases to the people. The Deputy said, "Send a message to the Government on the cost-of-living crisis - vote Sinn Féin", and the people of Galway West said, "Now, hang on a second here. We can see through this." The Deputy should have a little humility in terms of coming in here speaking for the people of Ireland and that the Deputy is in touch with everyone and I am out of touch. We just had an election. That is the first point.
The second point is, we need to be very careful we do not chase inflation. The Deputy's budget proposals last year would have put up inflation. The Deputy knows that too. We have to get this balance right. We had a good conversation of Government and Opposition at the oversight committee on this today. We have to be very careful that anything we do does not chase inflation because things that we do that could in the temporary moment seem like we are trying to assist people could end up pushing up prices for them and nobody in this House, I presume, wants to achieve that situation too.
We have taken measures. The people of Ireland get this. It is one of the largest packages of support in the European Union to help people. We will work in the annual budget cycle but if we get into this situation of mini-budget here and mini-budget there, it is a dangerous spiral that will not serve the people of this country well.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-26/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:04+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-26