Five months into his tenure as Minister for Finance, the Tánaiste, is bringing forward a second batch of emergency financial resolutions just four weeks on from the initial €250 million package. On balance, we in the Labour Party support the decision to reduce excise duties on petrol and diesel but the Government is quickly running out of road on further reductions when the price shock from the disruption to oil supply is yet to fully hit. We know there are dangerous and volatile times on the way; this is far from over. All in, this Government has pledged nearly €800 million mostly in tax cuts and fuel subsidies. The only social spending measure to date is four extra weeks of fuel allowance. This is indicative of the priorities. The Government has managed to provide sectoral support in the shape of a €100 million package for the agrifood sector and even more for the haulage sector but until now - the Tánaiste put some details on the record - there have been few public details announced on the enhanced transport support scheme and how it will work but at a cost of €40 million a month, on top of the previous diesel rebate scheme and excise and levy cuts on fuel that will be absorbed almost immediately by price increases. All of this being said, it is PAYE workers across the country who are left wondering what is in this for them, when their discrete package of cost-of-living measures and supports will arrive. Where are the targeted energy credits we sought to design along with colleagues in the Social Democrats, whose party policy it also is? They are targeted energy credits for people earning under €80,000. We have been arguing for that for several years. Where is the right to remote work? It would greatly help to reduce the cost of the commute. Where is the plan to reduce grocery prices or introduce more transparency in a system dominated by international players? Where is the plan to cut the cost of public transport? The budget last year did next to nothing for working people other than keep the show on the road for the country. A point was made earlier by somebody else in this Chamber that you have managed to develop a budget with €9 billion of additional spending but the position of working people, people on low and middle incomes, is materially deteriorating. There was a budget last year that did nothing for working people. It is not news to the Tánaiste that I am saying this; I said it that day and the evidence is there. Instead, the Government committed to spending nearly €500 million this year and over €1 billion next year on VAT cuts for construction and an economically illiterate VAT cut for a hospitality sector that is adding jobs by the day. Any savings on the newbuilds the Tánaiste says he wishes to support in terms of the construction VAT cut are now gone with the increase in construction inflation. It will make no difference to the price of meals for the public in the context of the hospitality VAT cut or the wages of low-paid workers in a sector that is addicted to low pay. In the coming weeks, there may be a situation where the supply of fuels will be disrupted and further measures may be needed. The Government is also setting a dangerous precedent by delaying carbon duties used to fund measures to decarbonise our economy and support those who need help the most to decarbonise with their fuel needs. Other interventions like reducing the applicable VAT rate should have been considered instead. Four weeks ago when we were debating the first round of measures in the House, I asked the Tánaiste to speak to the European Commission on the prospect of reducing the VAT rate on home heating oil, for example, from 13.5% to 9%. In the meantime, over those four weeks, our socialist colleague in Spain, Pedro Sanchez, cut VAT on fuels from 21% to 10% and Poland cut VAT on fuels from 23% to 8%. The EU has expressed concern about these VAT cuts but the Commissioner has also advised governments to reduce excise instead. It is really a technical matter related to the VAT directives. We have seen in the past that the EU has moved to reduce VAT or have a zero VAT rate on a range of products over the years. At a time of crisis the EU simply cannot be allowed to tie itself up in bureaucratic knots while people are struggling. For the sake of the credibility of the EU, in the middle of a crisis facing every citizen, business and household in the European Union, it needs to act fast. It needs to show pragmatism and it needs to show flexibility. This is what the idea of a social Europe should be all about. There were other options available to the Government that should have been explored outside of reducing the carbon tax. Reducing the VAT rate on fuels on a temporary basis must be on the table if this crisis continues to escalate. On balance, we will support the reductions to excise but other options were available and would have been preferable rather than undermining the principle of carbon taxes and what they are ultimately trying to achieve. For far too many of the people I represent there is a permanence about this cost-of-living crisis. If the Government and everyone else in the House are serious about democracy and value the democratic culture and the State that my party and others helped to found and cultivate, they will not want to see ever again the kind of scenes we saw last week on our streets. Most working people I know and represent are no political allies of the extremist elements that set about the blockades last week but they are so worried about making ends meet, and so broken and despairing at the end of the week or the month, that they, against their better judgment and instincts, gave them a hearing. This is a challenge to the Government and it is a challenge to the Opposition also. Doing little for working people in the last budget has had political consequences. Workers saw the package on Sunday and they quickly concluded there was nothing in it for them. No tax indexation in the last budget means lower take-home pay this year than last year for anybody who might receive a pay increase of 2% to 3%. The Government turned its back on a modest statutory sick pay scheme. It has delayed the delivery of a real living wage. Any change we in the Labour Party propose on remote work or paid sick leave is shot down and dismissed simply as a cost to business. The working public sees this. Sunday's package was a sectoral carve out. Working people are getting more militant and so will the trade union movement. Stand over and promote good deals that give people back their dignity, or people who have seen what happened last week could end up taking their own legitimate grievances about their own standards of living in an altogether different direction, and nobody wants to see that. This House and the Government need to respond.

Sentiment score: -0.08

Brexit.

Sentiment score: 0.00