This April Fool's Day we are bracing ourselves for the impact of the most foolish April Fool of them all. I am talking, of course, about Trump's tariffs, the scale and scope of which we will learn tomorrow. Not content with damaging his own economy, he has now got his sights set on ours too. Reportedly, even within his own administration, there is no knowing yet what exactly he has planned. Indeed, he may not even know himself. In that context, I was glad that the Tánaiste responded positively to my request in scheduling a briefing last week for Opposition leaders to hear from officials in his Department about the likely impact of tariffs. I thank the Tánaiste and his officials for what was a comprehensive, but deeply worrying, briefing. Clearly, we cannot take the threat of tariffs seriously enough. We know that a significant fall in exports to the US could mean significant job losses here and we know how reliant the Exchequer is on corporation tax, a disproportionate amount of which is from the profits of US multinationals. The place we find ourselves in today reflects the risks that the Taoiseach's party and Fine Gael have taken with the economy - first, in failing to diversify our economic base. Our economic model has clearly become over-reliant on a very small number of big American corporations and that is widely acknowledged as a risk. Second, there is a serious risk to our economy because the Government has contrived to waste what has undoubtedly been a boom. Our eye-watering corporation tax gains have been squandered because the Government did not use the money to invest in the sustainable infrastructure we so badly need. Affordable housing, decent public transport, universal childcare, fit-for-purpose healthcare and clean energy supplies are what we should have in place here in Ireland, given the budgetary figures we have had. Instead, the Government has favoured one-off measures in recent budgets. It gave a few quid off skyrocketing electricity bills and a tiny amount towards spiralling rents but nothing meaningful for those who are in such great need in a housing and a cost-of-living crisis. This is crunch time. Will the Taoiseach indicate that the Government's response to tariffs will prioritise public investment and targeted measures to help those who need them most? Will the Government act to safeguard jobs and livelihoods? We have welcomed the index-linking of welfare payments - that is very good to see - but now is the time to prepare for potential job losses. Since the pandemic, we in Labour have been calling for a State-backed short-term wage subsidy scheme to protect workers during periods of uncertainty. It would work like the employment wage subsidy scheme, which was introduced during the pandemic. Such schemes have long been in place in countries such as Germany. We have termed our scheme the ObairGhearr scheme. It would subsidise employees to work shorter hours when companies encounter difficulties and provide access to upskilling programmes. It is a vital type of model to protect workers' dignity and the livelihoods of families and households. Will the Taoiseach commit to looking at our proposals for this short-term working scheme and give us a commitment that the Government will respond to Trump's tariffs tomorrow with effective, targeted measures to protect not only businesses but also families and struggling households?

Sentiment score: 0.09

We had concerns about it.

Sentiment score: 0.00

All of us in this House agree that the tariffs Trump is proposing are bad for the worldwide economy. Indeed, we could be facing an international "Trump slump", as it has been described. The fear of tariffs itself is having a destabilising effect across Ireland and across Europe. We all appreciate that the EU has to respond in a strategic manner to whatever comes forward from the US tomorrow, but equally, we have to control the controllables here at home. The Minister for Finance has pointed out the need to invest in infrastructure, an acknowledgement that, as is widely accepted, we simply do not have the critical public infrastructure that should be in place at this point in time. I refer to housing in particular. We all know that is the biggest crisis facing the Government. This is why Labour is offering a constructive proposal. Our ObairGhearr scheme could be transformational. It could have made a very significant difference during the previous recession. It would have enabled us to hold onto more of our construction workers. That would have meant we could have delivered more homes. We might even have been able to deliver 40,000 homes last year had we enabled construction workers to stay in Ireland via a subsidised scheme such as we have seen in Germany. Will the Taoiseach review our scheme and look at it as a potential way to help households?

Sentiment score: -0.03