Cost of Living Mini-Budget: Motion [Private Members]
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-07
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Ged Nash (LAB), Louth

In my concluding remarks I will counter one or two of the points the Minister of State made, the first being his claim that nobody likes talking about fiscal responsibility and that it is not sexy. Well, it is the kind of thing that keeps me awake at night, and the Minister of State touched on one of the reasons. In an economy that is not managed responsibly, we know there is no future for working people and there is no future for small businesses. This is why it is very difficult to sit here, take lectures and be sermonised about fiscal responsibility by the Minister of State, Deputy Troy, and by Fianna Fáil. We all know the impacts of the irresponsibility they showed 20 years ago, and the impacts this had on working families in this country. We all know the impact that their destructive policies are still having on our dysfunctional housing system today, which goes to the root of the economic and social problems we have. We in the Labour Party will not be taking lectures from the Minister of State, Deputy Troy, or anybody else in his party about fiscal responsibility. By the way, fiscal responsibility does not mean austerity, cutbacks or anything of the sort. Fiscal responsibility means good economic management allied with imaginative economic management and social initiatives that allow Governments to address the real problems society is encountering.
In the last budget we saw the Government make choices that we fundamentally disagree with, and the Minister of State accepted that in his remarks. We can, thankfully, respectfully disagree. I have the height of respect for the Minister of State and the way in which he practises his politics and the way in which he represents his constituents and the country. We can, however, respectfully disagree.
We fundamentally disagree with the choices that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael made in the last election. There was no argument, for example, for a tax cut for the hospitality sector, which was adding jobs by the week. There was an even smaller argument, if one existed at all, for tax cuts for the development sector to supplement the bottom line of builders who were building apartments already. There was no argument whatsoever. That was done at the expense of tax indexation for PAYE workers. That is acknowledged by representatives on the Government side and is something we are seeking to address in a motion that is put forward in good faith to try to address the real concerns of working people in this country, who simply have had enough. They can no longer manage and they cannot, as colleagues have said, wait until a signal is sent in October that things might improve come 1 January when the Finance Bill is enacted.
I ask the Minister of State and his colleagues to reflect on the decision to introduce an amendment to the Labour Party motion. I ask the Government to send a signal to working people in this country that it is on their side. In particular, PAYE workers rightly feel abandoned by this Government. What we are arguing for is the definition of fiscal responsibility, namely, a properly framed mini-budget rather than a drip feed of interventions worth hundreds of millions of euro based on who shouts the loudest. That is no way to manage an economy. That is not fiscal responsibility or prudence. I would ask Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Independents to reflect on the position they have adopted here today.

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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