Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-07
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Ivana Bacik (LAB), Dublin Bay South

Last week, Ireland took on the Presidency of the Council of the European Union but we acquired another title, too. Ours is now the most expensive country in the EU for housing, healthcare and electricity. Housing costs are double those of the EU average and rising fast, as today's MyHome.ie report confirms.
The cost of healthcare is a staggering 85% higher than EU averages.
In that context, it is astonishing to see this Government’s inaction on pay talks for hardworking public servants. The last public sector pay agreement expired at the end of June. SIPTU tells us that exploratory talks on a replacement have provided zero basis for meaningful negotiations and so the unions representing public sector workers are consulting their members. Their next step will be to ballot for strike action. This is a move that nobody wants to take but public servants need to be able to make ends meet. This is DEFCON 1.
The Minister needs to respond and to do so substantively. The Minister has already described the unions' course of action as a "surprise". Most people will be surprised by the Minister's surprise because thanks to the political choices made by the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael over the past decade, Ireland was already expensive before now and lacking in quality public services. However, now inflation is skyrocketing. The cost of living is crushing households and the Minister and his officials have known this was coming and knew the current agreement was expiring. As SIPTU general secretary John King has said: "Public sector workers have carried this country through crisis after crisis. They deserve fair pay, respect and meaningful engagement ..."
Did the Minister forget about public sector workers or is this in keeping with this Government's attitude to PAYE workers, in general? We know the Minister is dealing with finite public resources but by creating uncertainty around agreeing a new public sector pay deal, he is risking public finances. He is projecting prudence but finding the money to spend where it suits in a profligate fashion.
As the existing public sector agreement expired, the Minister's wrong-headed VAT cut for hospitality came into effect. At an annual cost of €681 million, the Government directly took money from the pockets of PAYE workers and put it in the hands of Supermac's and Burger King. Earlier in the year, the Minister announced measures to support sectors vulnerable to fuel hikes but nothing for the 500,000 households now in arrears on their electricity bills.
The Minister must now reckon with the political choices he has made and he has new political choices ahead. If he makes the wrong choices, the people with least to give will pay the highest price again and will pay the price for the Minister's unsustainable management of the public finances. Will the Minister stop scapegoating the unions and, as Minister for public expenditure and reform, will he engage in good faith and use the public sector pay talks to back and support PAYE workers and to spend in a sustainable manner, to invest in quality public services, to invest in the delivery of social and affordable homes, and to build an active State that communities need?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-07/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:07+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-07