Mary Lou McDonald: Emergency Budget for Energy Crisis

Taoiseach, the Credit Union Consumer Sentiment Report for April has been published and it lays bare the severity of the cost of living pressure on people especially when it comes to soaring energy costs. It reveals that a third of consumers expect to cut energy just to get by, while nine out of ten consumers fear that high energy costs will force them to cut back on household spending. The reality is that working people and families are struggling to stay afloat. A record number of households can't pay their electricity bill, one in four can't pay their gas bills and now they brace themselves for further electricity price hikes in the coming weeks and workers and families are really really worried about the time ahead. Yet they see your government refusing to listen seemingly incapable of understanding the pressure they're under. Last October you wanted people to believe that this was all over and you couldn't have been more wrong. Since then your response has been all over the place. You've scrambled around taking a scattered approach doing a bit here and a bit there but never showing the leadership required to truly grasp this crisis. What was needed from government was quick decisive action to provide people with real relief to give working households certainty for the time ahead. However it's only when public anger grows that you move. Twice you have come to the table, twice you have gotten it badly wrong. Half measures each time, never prepared to go far enough. You've left people to struggle on, to make do and even when anger boiled into protest you still failed to understand people's lives. Workers and families can't take this anymore Taoiseach, they can't wait any longer. We need an emergency budget and we've set out clearly what needs to be done. Solutions that cut to the heart of the pressure people are under. We need energy credits for households, a 500 euro payment for people with disabilities, a suite of measures to protect the most vulnerable and there must be relief for workers. Remember your budget last October left them worse off. You'll remember introducing the USC Taoiseach. It was brought in by Fianna Fáil when you crashed the Irish economy. It's a constant drag on people's wages and even more so during this cost-of- living crisis. So we propose a permanent USC cut that puts 500 euros back into workers pockets. These are practical steps that can be taken right now to make a real difference, to lift some of the pressure people are under to make ends meet. Expecting households to cling on until next year's budget is not only unfair it's downright insulting because this cost of living crisis is happening now. The stress is at kitchen tables now in this time and you need to do your job. You need to act to make life more affordable. Your government has a surplus of billions. A fraction of that would make a real difference. So bring forward an emergency budget. Finally listen. Give workers and families the proper relief they deserve. Taoiseach to respond. Well first of all I acknowledge that because of the war in the Middle East, which you somehow managed not to mention, which is a war that has created shocking constraints in terms of oil supply and has led to an increase in fuel prices across the world. Globally people are very concerned about what they see as the biggest shock to the energy sector in many a time. They're saying it is bigger than 73, 79 combined and even 73, 79, 1973, 1979 and 2022 combined. So it's a very very serious shock to the energy system that has been brought about here, which has dramatically increased prices and will result in a global contraction of fossil fuel supplies with consequential impacts in terms of other products like fertilizer and helium and so on, which could have impacts on jobs and which could have impacts on food production across the world. And these are very very serious issues that we're all facing. And we acknowledge fully that this is creating pressures on families and on households. No question about that. There is an uncertainty about it as well, because we don't quite know when this is going to end, when the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is going to end, which is key to getting prices down and getting supply reactivated again to a significant degree. You haven't referenced any of that. It's as if it doesn't exist in your world. But those are the realities facing every government across the world right now. And yes, from our perspective in the budget, we majored very heavily on housing, on infrastructure, on disability with a 20% increase, and on child poverty in terms of the support payments for children going up substantially on record levels for over 12, 16 years and under less than that, but still record levels both ways. And then we did the extension of the family fuel allowance to bring in the working family payment and those on it, which brought in an extra 50,000. About 26% of people now are on the fuel allowance. And that was a measure that does help people deal, not comprehensively, but at least it's a contribution to people to take pressure often in respect of rising fuel prices. And we have announced a 750 million package, over 750 million actually, which has brought down the excise duty by about 32 cents on diesel and about 27 cents on petrol. So those measures affect and help everybody. And today the government approved two very specific packages for the transport haulier sector, which is much more expanded than was the case during the Ukrainian energy crisis, and also farmers, fishers, contractors. And these are very, very substantial schemes. And remember that about 240,000 workers are involved in the haulage logistics industry. I know you described them last week as a sectional thing and that we're only looking after particular sectors. But it's key to everybody, all workers, that we can get goods to port, get them exported at an affordable price, that we can get goods on our supermarket shelves at an affordable price. So when we alleviate the pressure on hauliers and logistics and supply, we're alleviating pressures on everybody. And likewise in terms of food production. So we're not scattered all over the place. This was strategic to deal with food production. This is a critical period in terms of food. We're a big food producing country. And it is right that we should alleviate the pressures on farmers, in particular around the food production area, on contractors as well, in terms of the role that they play in terms of food production. There was a cost of living crisis before the war on Iran. More than 300,000 households were already in energy arrears. So this has very, very deep roots, this crisis. You fail to acknowledge that. Your budget last October left workers worse off and left people with disabilities worse off. You fail to acknowledge that. Families and workers are really, really struggling Taoiseach, and you have no response for them except to talk down to them, except to dismiss them. I have asked you to introduce an emergency budget. I have said to you the very, very specific measures that we in Sinn Féin believe that need to be taken. Energy credits, supports, including a disability payment and critically, a permanent cut in respect of the USC. These are the things that need to happen if you are to be serious about assisting people in a time of crisis. Are you serious? Are you listening? Thank you. The reality is, Taoiseach, about this issue, and the reality is that it is very expensive, so there is no answer to that as to how expensive it is for the Gaelic language and the language that we have spoken in the past four years. Deputy, what you've outlined is something for everybody, everybody. It could be four or five billion in terms of what you announced. You didn't cost it. I think it's about three and a half billion. You say that, but what is the cost? I'd say it's around five billion. The bottom line is here, we have allocated 750 million already, and there's a budget in October. It's about time we need to also bear in mind in terms of how best we target the resources we have. We don't have money in the bottom of a drawer like you're suggesting. Much of that surplus is in the Future Ireland Fund and is in the Infrastructure and Nature Fund. Unless you're advocating we take it out of the funds, so you need to clarify that. But that money has been put aside, and a lot of it is being invested in the economy, in jobs, and in housing right now.