Tax Reliefs
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-21
============================================================

Pearse Doherty (SF), Donegal

The Minister needs to get his head out of the clouds and sand and talk to ordinary people. He can pontificate all he wants, point fingers at me and say I am isolated and people do not back me in here. I do not give a damn because I know that I am on the side of ordinary Irish people. I know that people are being pushed to the pin of their collar. I have met them on the streets and in homes across the State over the past number of weeks. I know they need action and leadership and they are not getting it from the Minister. That is what I am doing here. I am giving them a voice and I do not care who else is on my side because I know the side I am on. The Minister is on the wrong side.
The question people will ask me after this exchange will be how the fella across from me justifies €9 billion of a surplus. Last night I spoke to an elderly person in Galway who has no fuel in her tank to heat her home. Carers told me the old woman apologised to them because the house was so cold. At a time the Exchequer's coffers are bursting, people are going cold. That is not a republic that is worthy of the name. The Minister has the opportunity to change that and make a real difference for people, but he refuses to do so because he is too long in this bubble and is out of touch with ordinary people.

---

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/2026-04-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-21T01:01:08+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-21