The man with no thought that goes untweeted said nothing. It is my hometown.

It is true though.

I am pleased to speak on the Finance Bill. It gives effect to many of the announcements made in the budget two short weeks ago. If we needed any convincing that budget 2025 was all about the pending election, budget 2026, a bare budget for working people, and the associated Finance Bill prove the point beyond any doubt. This time last year, billions in once-off payments were thrown around in a transparent attempt to buy votes with our own money. There is little sign of support for struggling citizens today. The ele…

A bit like the help-to-buy for the property developers.

It is getting worse.

They support the viability gap.

It is a failure in the housing stock .

It is shameful.

It was published this morning. The Taoiseach can challenge it himself.

I will be sharing time with my colleague Deputy Sherlock. The story of Ireland over the past decade has been a story of missed opportunities. There was a catastrophic failure to build the homes we need when we could and should have done. The Government is so crippled by caution and conservatism that we are only now, a decade into a unprecedented spell of uninterrupted growth, facing up to the chronic infrastructure deficits in transport, health, education and energy that put our economic model and our society at ri…

It will not help. It will make things worse. It is an insult. It is quite frankly offensive.

People I represent are handing back groceries at the till when they get there because they do not have the money to pay for them all. Where is the dignity in that? They are afraid to put on the radio in case they are told about another expected hike next month in their electricity or gas bills. It is frankly hard to accept the claim that the Government is all about targeting when the social protection package - the thing we use to target the most vulnerable - is so wide of the mark. Here are some of the one-hit won…

I remember when Fianna Fáil used to care about the social protection system. Can someone do a welfare check on Willie O’Dea? Where is he? He must be mortified, absolutely embarrassed. When the Society of St. Vincent de Paul said €16 were needed to be added to every core weekly payment, we agreed. We made allowance for that in our costed alternative budget. As for Fine Gael, we had the usual pre-budget whining, pitting one section of welfare recipient against another, all for the headlines - nasty, unbecoming, divis…

Carers save the State €20 billion a year and for a fraction of that, we can ensure that every carer gets the financial recognition and support they need and that their selfless work deserves. Both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil’s manifestos have variations of commitments in that direction. Incremental increases to income disregards are all well and good, and welcome, but we need to do more. I acknowledge the progress announced today. Labour also agrees that there are additional costs to living with a disability. There w…

----to a sector that is adding jobs, and can boast more openings than closures. As it happens, almost the exact same amount of money is needed for a targeted second tier of child support to the poorest of families. This will be rolled over every year and the Government will get no change out of about €3 billion by the time it is done. That is €3 billion less for tax adjustments for working people and service improvements. The only people who think this is a good idea seem to be Simon Harris, Peter Burke and industr…

IFAC, the usually demure, dismal scientists, waded in last week. They usually keep their mouths shut on policy pronouncements. They said that every tax cut or tax foregone comes at a cost. They set out alternative homes for this cash. Over 11,000 nurses could be hired, or 7,800 teachers. Critically, tax bands could be moved by €3,000, saving an average worker €600. As far as the Labour Party is concerned, IFAC is right, this money would be better spent supporting children and workers. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have…

-----but a business cannot give Revenue the two fingers and get away with it. Before handing over to my colleague, Deputy Sherlock, I will conclude on this. It is disgraceful that this Government has decided it will keep what it describes as its solemn promise on VAT for the hospitality sector but will break a solemn promise it made to workers about introducing a living wage in 2026. Workers in this country have waited long enough for the dignity and fairness that comes with the introduction of a living wage. They …

Unbelievable.

In less than a fortnight the budget will be announced. There is growing concern among commentators and experts that we are in a situation where spending is out of control and frankly, they are right. There is a certain faint whiff of 2008 around the place. The budgetary oversight committee has heard warnings from the ESRI, IFAC, the Central Bank and me that we cannot keep spending and cutting taxes and expect good outcomes. We have a Government that has no net spending rule. We had a medium-term framework published…

I thank the Minister for his response, which was interesting from a number of perspectives. The Labour Party always makes the case for additional public spending, whether that is to meet the needs of demographic changes or existing levels of service. We do that transparently, especially when we are looking at the new investments we need to make our economy work and our society fairer. We are always honest that we simply cannot pay for the new services we require without looking at where we can raise revenue to pay …