Ivana Bacik: Labour Has No Confidence in Government

Comhairle, Labour has no confidence in this government. This government has failed to tackle the cost of living crisis. Its members have shown a total disregard for the mounting pressures facing households and businesses across the country. The Labour Party warned in March, when the first package of measures was announced, that workers and families would continue to face impossible cost burdens. We warned then that government needed to adopt robust policies on renewable energy, on transport costs and on remote working. The events of last week, and the support from the public for the aims of the protests, was not just about fuel prices. But the government has patently failed to recognise this. They failed to recognise why so many people across the country are so angry with them. And it's about energy bills, yes. But it's also about exorbitant rents and mortgage costs, about house prices, childcare, education and healthcare costs, waiting lists and more. It's about a budget last October that did nothing for working people. It's about a housing crisis only getting worse as more and more of our young people choose to leave this country because they see no future here. It's about the thousands stuck on waiting lists for treatment, therapies, disability services, assessments of needs. It's about a lack of special education supports for children with additional needs. And so much more. Last week, Labour recognised the deep distress and frustration felt by so many. Last Wednesday morning, we called on the government to engage urgently with representative groups to ensure a resolution. We also called for the lifting of blockades, to limit disruption to families' lives and businesses and ensure fuel reached those who needed it. We rejected intimidatory tactics of some, while absolutely respecting the right to peaceful protest of many. But we watched all week in mounting dismay as your government ministers responded by going on the airwaves pouring petrol on the flames of anger, instead of de-escalating, inflaming the situation. The meeting you eventually convened on Friday afternoon could and should have been held sooner. Government could and should have acted more swiftly to address the real and genuine concerns of so many. The government's actions over the last week alone have shown that it's incapable of handling crisis situations. This government is worn out, tired out and zoned out from the reality of people's lives. After too many years in office, this government of Fianna Fáil, Fianna Gael, the Lowry Group and it seems half the Healy Rays, just didn't get the message. Indeed in the week before Easter, the message should have been received, loud and clear, about the growing fuel and energy security crisis resulting from Trump and Netanyahu's illegal warmongering in Iran and Lebanon. But government leaders were more focused then on talking about tax cuts for the rich. In the week when grocery inflation was reported at over 6%, the Tanisha was on a media blitz for his new investment savings scheme. While 320,000 households are in arrears on their electricity bills, the Taoiseach was ruminating on inheritance tax cuts in the next budget. That's where the government's priority was, totally out of touch. And as protests began, there followed a week of dithering, confusion, mixed messages, bombastic statements issued by Taoiseach and Tanisha on Wednesday night but no real follow through. On Thursday morning, the Justice Minister ratcheting up the tension by announcing that the assistance of the defence forces had been requested. In his rush to get on the airwaves, it appears he neglected to consult with the Minister for Defence. His intervention only inflamed the situation further. Not to be outdone of course, the Minister for Media announced yesterday that he wants Commissioner Naaman to investigate media coverage of the protests. Goodbye Victor Orban, hello Patrick O'Donovan. At best, one might hope this was a cynical attempt to distract from a disastrous week for the government. But at worst, and in seriousness, it's a Minister resorting to sinister threats against the national broadcaster because it was doing its job of reporting fairly on events around the country. Yet as bad as last week was, the real crisis has yet to properly hit us. The International Energy Agency has been warning for weeks that the world now faces the most severe energy crisis ever recorded, a supply shock yet to properly hit Ireland or Europe. So Taoiseach, where is our national fuel security plan? The crisis of last week shows a shocking unpreparedness if we end up facing a fuel rationing situation. The Labour Party has no confidence in this government to bring forward the radical proposals that need to be introduced as the IEA has advised. Proposals that indeed Labour has made for remote working, for making public transport free, for taking serious measures to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. Ireland needs real action now to invest in renewable energy, retrofitting solar and wind installation, to reduce energy costs, to curb emissions and to tackle the climate crisis. And that's another reason why Labour has no confidence in this administration. Because by your deeds and actions, you've shown yourselves to be the most conservative and ideologically right-wing government in a generation. You've consistently rode back on climate action commitments. You've arrogantly dismissed and consistently voted down constructive proposals from Labour and others in opposition on taking action on housing, on workers' rights, on the cost of living. You stopped sick pay increases. You rode back on a living wage. You voted down our Labour bill on the right to remote working. You sneered at calls for stronger state action on housing or the development of a state construction company. And Taoiseach, your budget last October provided no relief for working people, failing to index income taxes, removing vital once-off supports and at the same time committing millions to untargeted VAT cuts for construction and hospitality, big builders and burger barons. The value of those VAT cuts will be washed away in the inflation likely to hit us over the next six months. The price of construction of a house already reported to have increased by 25,000 to 30,000 euro, a VAT cut on hospitality that was never going to be passed on anyway and that would have been better spent on targeted supports for those now in fuel and energy poverty. Taoiseach, this government cannot be trusted to manage the public finances. There's a 600 million euro deficit already forecast for the Department of Education. You've managed to spend nearly a billion on fuel supports without any new measures that will tackle energy poverty or that will address the near 200 million euro of arrears on household gas and electricity bills. And as our Labour finance spokesperson Jed Nash has said, the measures you announced on Sunday are designed to placate sectoral interests, effectively abandoning PAYE workers, low and middle income earners who have no option other than to pay taxes but whose pay packets are under increasing pressure in this cost of living crisis. Pressure from rising energy bills but also from skyrocketing grocery prices as we face food insecurity, from escalating housing costs. Taoiseach, we need substantive engagement from government at the upcoming LEAF talks, substantive engagement with the trade unions and Labour will strongly support the trade union movement in seeking pay rises for hard-pressed workers and working families. As I move to conclude, we all know who caused the outbreak of this most recent fuel crisis. Yet your government has failed to condemn the illegal war launched by Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu. We know that our economy, our energy security, our society is being threatened because of the actions of the US and Israel. So the government must now call in the US ambassador, challenge them on their illegal warmongering, their threats to wipe out a civilisation made just a week ago, and their ongoing blockade of ships. We must recognise the United States is not acting as a friend any more and the fuelled protests result from the US and Israel's war in Iran. The government must press the EU to sanction Israel as it seeks to conquer southern Lebanon. And we're watching in horror as Israel erases villages from the map, colonises the West Bank, continues to destroy Gaza and entrench its system of apartheid. When will the EU act to end the trade agreement with Israel? When will your government act to pass the Occupied Territories Bill that you committed to in the general election but that you walked away from once office was secured? Now is the time, Taoiseach, and you'd have opposition support to send America and Israel a real message on this, to pass the Occupied Territories in full to cover trade in goods and services, to work with Spain and other progressives across the EU, to force the EU to suspend the Israel trade agreement. These are real things that could be done but we know you won't do them because your Conservative government lacks the courage to do so. Taoiseach, you have failed PAYE workers, you have failed struggling households and hard-pressed families. We in the Labour Party have no confidence in you.