Cost of Living Mini-Budget: Motion [Private Members]
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-07
============================================================

Jerry Buttimer (FG), Cork South-Central

Perhaps we did not communicate it properly or engage quicker. I accept that. I am not living in an ivory tower, as I said. I accept that point. We acted to insulate households and businesses from the worst impacts of rising costs. That is why we have two packages with a cumulative cost of €750 million. It is the second highest or highest package in Europe. That budget surplus was not conjured up out of magic money. This package supports the most vulnerable through lower costs at the pump and supporting key sectors of our economy.
It is great to go off and tax and spend, but what happens next October or November if we are still where we are? That is why I agree with Deputy Heneghan. Let us hope this war is over because it has only got one outcome, that is, it is negative for everybody. That is why the Government has been clear around de-escalation. Some of the propositions from the Opposition are to spend it all now, which would leave us with no buffer for the winter or anything to last us into the next couple of months. Where would we be then? Members of the Opposition would come into the Chamber and say that we were irresponsible, imprudent and did not manage the economy carefully. In that scenario, hey presto, we would have no resources on hand to budget for unforeseen shocks. As the Minister of State, Deputy Troy, said, if we were to respond to every demand asked of us, we would have no surplus and be in a far more exposed position. We would be back to the budgetary position we were in at the time of the crash between 2007 and 2010 and beyond. That is why this is important.
I have great faith in people like Deputy Nash. I admire him greatly, having served with him in both Houses. He has that ability to look at the national economic dialogue and engage constructively. He was in government. He knows what it is like when there is nothing in the cupboard and when you are hiding under the cupboard to try to find a few bob. He never shirked his responsibility, nor did the Labour Party to be fair when it was in government. I will always have admiration for people in the Labour Party because when the country needed it in the tough times, the party was there. We should never forget that. My view is very clear in that regard.
The budgetary economic process has begun, as we know. The priorities for the next budget are beginning to be unfurled. That is why I welcome this conversation around tax and taxation. The Tánaiste has initiated that conversation. As policymakers, there is an obligation on us, as Deputy Heneghan mentioned, to strike that balance between the competing priorities that we all rightly commend and speak for. We all represent different interest groups and people. At the end of the day, those interest groups are representing people, and we should never lose sight of that. We must strike that balance so that we can responsibly manage our public finances and invest in childcare, disability, education and infrastructure.
I understand the political game. It is back and forth and sometimes, we have to try to appease, win and excite people. However, do not for one second think that those of us on this side of the House do not recognise the difficulties people face. We understand them fully. That is why we intervened. Many of us in our parliamentary parties engage with our Ministers and leaders about them.
The Cathaoirleach Gníomhach referred earlier to the greatest hits of the Government. This was not about the greatest hits; it was about interventions to address the impact of costs on people whom we all represent and understand. I will not list the measures introduced but people are seeing a benefit now. Are they totally immune? No. The Taoiseach said here many times that we cannot provide that blanket for everyone. What we are doing, however, is putting in place packages that reduce the rate of inflation and costs on people. Let us be clear: there are choices to be made, and those choices have consequences. The Government has been careful in its deliberation and calibration of the response. This is not a letter to Santa. We cannot write, “Dear Santa” and the wish list will be got. As we all know, someone pays the bill for Santa at the end of the day.
The measures we have taken are targeted. They provide support to the most vulnerable and assist the people and sectors of our economy where there is a need for jobs, job security and growth. They are proportionate measures.
I know it is not sexy or glitzy to speak about the sound management of the economy. When I think about the Ministers for Finance we had in modern times, people like Ruairí Quinn, Brian Lenihan jnr, Paschal Donohoe, Michael Noonan, Jack Chambers and now Simon Harris, and Joan Burton when she was in social protection, I often wonder how they would have reacted and what would they have done. It is about providing benefit to householders and businesses so that we can keep jobs going, we can sustain that sustainable position on our economy, and we can use our funds wisely. If we are genuinely sincere in the way in which we continue to budget and continue to manage our economy, we must have sustainability and we must be wise and prudent. I certainly do not want to go back to 2007 or 2010 when we were in this House and the Upper House. This is why the national development plan has a clear roadmap for investment.
Proper budgetary planning must be done in a measured way to represent people, taking into account the pressures of today but also the longer-term perspective. I thank the Labour Party for bringing the motion before the House tonight. I believe the Government is getting the balance right. As I said in the past, it is a sensible approach to the medium and long-term budgetary position. I thank Deputy Nash for bringing the motion forward.

---

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/2026-05-07/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:46+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-07