Richard O'Donoghue: How Government Doubled Living Costs
Richard O'Donoghue accuses the government of driving inflation, doubling the cost of buying and building homes, and mismanaging public funds in a forceful Dáil contribution. He lays out VAT, mortgage and spending figures to argue the working squeezed middle have been overlooked by successive policies.
Housing costs and VAT
Richard O'Donoghue compares the price of a 2,000 sq ft house from five to six years ago with today, showing VAT and price increases that, he says, raised the effective tax burden by roughly 22,000 euros for a typical build. He frames the change as a direct hit on two-earner households trying to secure a family home.
Mortgage affordability and income impact
Using a 40 percent income-to-mortgage model and an example interest rate, O'Donoghue details how mortgage repayments and interest have ballooned, requiring far higher household earnings today than five years ago. He argues that these shifts have pushed more families into severe financial strain.
Misspending and departmental failures
O'Donoghue catalogues alleged departmental misspending - from hospital budgets to minor projects - and says those funds could have been used to protect families when costs rose. He challenges Ministers and departments on accountability and faults government advisers for poor decisions.
Policy consequences and environmental grants
He criticises the design of retrofit and environmental grants that, he contends, fail once material and supply prices inflate. He warns that targeting fossil-fuel items without addressing affordability will punish vulnerable households who rely on cheaper vehicles and heating.
Accountability demand
O'Donoghue closes by demanding a full inquiry into departmental misuse of funds and calls on elected officials to take responsibility rather than act as fronts for ill-advised department decisions. He stresses his presence in the Dáil is to help vulnerable people, not to chase promotion.
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Thank you Chair, and after listening to all the contributions from the government's side and their colleagues, it just shows you why we're in the position we're in. And some of the people that contributed there a few minutes ago just said to me that they'd like to see the people in the middle working class looked after on this budget. And that person told us that he got elected the same day as you did, which was the same day I got elected. And since we came here on the first day I got elected, they were the people that I was looking to be looked after in the first place. But it's taken me six years even to come out and say that, that you want the people that work in this country to be looked after. Six years later, this is what you come out with. So I'm going to give you a small insight into the six years that you have been in government since you've got elected yourself. And we'll just go to the working squeeze middle. And we'll take an average of a house that if somebody wanted to buy a house or build a house, that in that time, a 2,000 square foot house was costing you 240,000 plus VAT. That meant that house five, six years ago was costing you 272,406 euros. But now let's travel forward. And today, that same house, it's the same house from five, six years ago, is now costing you 454,000 euros, including VAT for the same house. But the VAT intake from your government has gone from 32,400 to 54,000 of a tax take on somebody trying to provide their own home. Working squeezed middle. Two people work in the house, trying to provide a roof over their head, probably trying to start a family so they can secure their livelihoods. And what you've done is on one strike of a pen, you took 22,000 euros extra for them even to build their own house on a tax. But that's not all what you've done. If you use the model of the 40% of your income to afford a mortgage. So now we go back to that. So if you had to get a mortgage today for 270,000 to build that same house five years ago, you would have to have an earnings of 3,830 euros to afford your repayment of 1,532. And that's based on a 4.75% interest rate. You would end up paying 189,650 in interest and your house from 270,000 by the time you repay everything would be 460,000 you repay. That's if you were buying a house from five years ago. Today your house is 450,000. You now have to have earnings of 6,252 euros 50. That's 2,500 repayments per month. So in five years you've almost doubled the cost of them buying or building their own house. You've increased your tax intake not only on the building of their house but their income tax. Now they're on 40% income tax. Tax on top of tax on top of tax. That's what you've done in the five years. And every one of your government ones turned around today and said to me, we have so much money inside and that's why we could give the 750 million euros targeted for when this bank came from, you're saying the war in Ukraine. War in Iran. Covid. All these knee-jerk reactions. And your minister yesterday, Jack Chambers told us that Richard if we had to do that we'd have to put X amount of money away every year if we'd counteract this. But the problem is you've misspent a billion over budget on a hospital that hasn't been delivered yet. You've misspent on bike sheds, you've misspent on huts, £1.4 million. If you added up all the misspents that you've used, that would be the money that would be there today to introduce when things rise, when fuel hits a certain level, it automatically adds in. All these things and the monies you've misspent would actually cover the people today. And would bring back the inflationary costs. But everything you've done, you've driven inflation. You've doubled the cost of buying and building your own house. You've doubled the cost of buying a car. You've doubled the cost of running a vehicle. And you've doubled your tax intake on the same thing. That's all you're doing. Yesterday I spoke to your department and I asked them what was their VAT intake up on for this time this year. The first thing they said to me, oh we're up 6%. 40 minutes later they were only up 3%. So your own department don't even know what they're doing within their own departments. That's how much clued in that they are. And these are the ones that are advising you. These are the ones that you're defending when you were in government every single day. The problem we have here is you're just fronts for departments that are making mistakes and you're not holding them to account. You're just fronts. You're told what to do every day. When are you going to take responsibility and take on your own departments and tell them you're wrong? You're not the right person for the job. Get out. Give me somebody that can actually manage the person's finances and get his accountability. When are you going to stand up for that? Because until the day you decide your career over the people in this country, that's what's wrong. It's all down to career politicians. The day the people do not want me in this house, I'm quite happy to go. The day I can't contribute to try and help the vulnerable people in this country, I'm quite happy to go. But the only reason I'm here is to help those vulnerable people. It's not to get a job in cabinet. It's not to get a promotion like most of your cabinet is. They'll do and say anything so they will get a better job. I don't mind if you deliver something. I don't mind if anyone here in this house delivers something. My job in this house is to make sure that delivery is done. You can have all the praise in the world for delivering it once the job is done. That's a person that doesn't mind about careers. I have my career. I have family. I have dependents on me. And they are crippled week on week out with overtaxation of your government. And you come out saying we're going to deliver this. We're going to give a scheme here, a scheme there. The only scheme that's on here is a scheme that you're doing for yourselves. That's the only scheme that's here. You then brought out a retrofrick grant. I've just explained to you the cost of building over the last five years. So your retrofrick grant on oil-based properties to insulate houses, oil-based, silicone, PVC, oil-based have all increased. So your grants are worth nothing. So you put pressure on something that was inflated at the moment. You put pressure on something on an oil-based product and you talk about environment. You're putting the pressure on oil-based products. You're investing taxpayers' money and driving inflation. So when something's under pressure we put more pressure on it. We are one-tenth of 1% of global emissions. And you have people in this country going hungry. And you think more about targeting something and trying to get fossil vehicles here and trying to put them off the road when it's the only thing that the vulnerable people can afford to go to work. That's what you're doing. You're punishing everyone. And you have a big wad of money and then you misspent it. There should be a full inquiry into your government departments on misuse of funding. That's what should be done. And then, let's see, from the misspent money, how many people could it help? As I say, you have so many career politicians over there now and you just hear them, they give an old spatter now and then, but they're not seen in their own areas. They're only seen there for a picture, running in and out. They give all the promises to get themselves elected but they don't want to do any delivery. That is the issue with government. And until you actually take on your departments, make your departments accountable, you're only fronts. That's what you are. Fronts and you're backing up something that you're told before you walk out here. Your hand in the paperwork, I do my own. I don't need a department to tell me that they're wrong. Because I can see it in all the paperwork that we get and the misspent money in this country is all down to your departments giving you bad advice and you go and say yes sir, no sir, I want a promotion for that. So that's what you do. You encourage people, promote them for doing wrong and it's every Irish person in this
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