Richard Boyd Barrett: Shameful Response to War and Cost Crisis
Richard Boyd Barrett criticises the government's failure to condemn Israeli and US aggression against Iran and Lebanon and links that refusal to a worsening cost-of-living crisis at home. He outlines concrete demands - a 500 euro energy credit and price controls on fuel and heating - and calls out Shannon Airport refuelling as part of the problem.
Richard Boyd Barrett argues the government has failed to act both morally and economically. He says the refusal to condemn what he calls "Israeli and US illegal and bloody aggression" mirrors an unwillingness to confront rising electricity, grocery and heating costs and corporate profiteering.
Boyd Barrett sets out specific measures: a 500 euro energy credit to help with arrears, price controls to hold petrol and diesel at 175 a litre, home heating oil at one euro per litre, and reduced kilowatt hour charges for gas and electricity. He cites other European measures and says these steps are feasible.
He highlights the continued refuelling of US military aircraft at Shannon Airport as evidence of Government complicity, asking why the state would permit that while condemning other actors. He contrasts this practice with how other conflicts are treated and urges clarity and action.
The speech places these demands in the context of long-term price rises - electricity already 25% higher than parts of Europe and grocery prices that have doubled over five years - and warns that warmongering abroad carries a direct financial cost for people at home.
Main accusations
Richard Boyd Barrett argues the government has failed to act both morally and economically. He says the refusal to condemn what he calls "Israeli and US illegal and bloody aggression" mirrors an unwillingness to confront rising electricity, grocery and heating costs and corporate profiteering.
Policy proposals
Boyd Barrett sets out specific measures: a 500 euro energy credit to help with arrears, price controls to hold petrol and diesel at 175 a litre, home heating oil at one euro per litre, and reduced kilowatt hour charges for gas and electricity. He cites other European measures and says these steps are feasible.
Shannon Airport and moral consistency
He highlights the continued refuelling of US military aircraft at Shannon Airport as evidence of Government complicity, asking why the state would permit that while condemning other actors. He contrasts this practice with how other conflicts are treated and urges clarity and action.
Economic context and consequences
The speech places these demands in the context of long-term price rises - electricity already 25% higher than parts of Europe and grocery prices that have doubled over five years - and warns that warmongering abroad carries a direct financial cost for people at home.
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Transcript
Look, even before the Israeli and US illegal and bloody aggression against Iran and Lebanon, there was a cost-of-living crisis in this country that the government was not acting in any serious way to address. We already had electricity prices that were about 25% higher than the rest of Europe. As prices had doubled over the previous five years, we've seen the price of groceries and so on increase very, very significantly. And in all of those areas, of course, massive profits being recorded by the energy companies, by the supermarket chains, by the electricity companies. And then we get this. And the failure of the government to condemn, in clear and unequivocal terms, Trump's bloody and illegal war is mirrored in the failure of the government to actually seriously address the economic and financial consequences of their bloody warmongering on ordinary people. Because not only are they raining down death and destruction, raining fire on the people of Iran, on the people of Lebanon, on the people of Palestine, and the whole region, they are costing every single person in this country money and the government can't even bring themselves to condemn them and indeed continue to allow the US military to refuel at Shannon Airport. Shameful, shameful. Would you let Putin into Shannon Airport? Of course you wouldn't, and rightly so. But yes, the Americans are allowed to prosecute their war. So what you've offered here is better than nothing, but it's late in the day on top of an already existing crisis, and what we have proposed is that you should help people with the arrears by giving them the energy credit, 500 euros energy credit, and that you introduce actual price controls to hold down petrol and diesel at 175 a litre, to hold down home heating oil down to one euro per litre, and to reduce the kilowatt hour charges for gas and electricity. Thank you Deputy. Can this be done? It is being done elsewhere in Europe, in the Czech Republic. I've got five seconds left. But now I don't. Thanks for your interruption. Go on now. Deputy Stanley. OK.