Ged Nash
Louth · Labour Party · Ireland
“However, it is a rich country that has a problem understanding that it is now sustainably rich. Those of us in opposition will, of course, say that this country needs to do better, and it can.”
“On the one hand, it is legitimate for an Opposition party to critique the economic model day in, day out. I do it myself all of the time, and we all know that Ireland can do better. However, at the same time, is that kind of critique helping to persuade those whom we need to persuade into a new Ireland? I am not so sure that it is.”
“There will be fiscal and financial implications for this State in that transition. There is an obligation on us, insofar as we can, to properly interrogate and consider those implications and to be upfront about them.”
“No, it did not, but let us not exaggerate its impact on the Irish economy. It is good and it had an impact, but was there a causal relationship? I am not so sure. The jury is out on that. However, is the Good Friday Agreement a good thing and good for our economy? Of course, it is. Did the guns fall silent in the North?”
“We are not good at describing what those accommodations will be or what that relationship with the UK will be, whether economically, socially, politically, culturally or otherwise. It is a relationship that will have to be maintained. It will look very different as we approach a new Ireland.”
“That was a very different prospect when the vast majority, if not all, of East German citizens wanted to become part of a united German polity. As we know, that is not the case on this island. We need to be careful about how we approach that.”
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“The Tánaiste knows well and acknowledged that we have a difference of opinion on the best way in which we can support those jobs. I firmly believe, and I stand over the position, that this is not the best way to do that and is not the best way to allocate finite public resources in terms of supporting the subsectors of that sector that we are all concerned, that is, the small microenterprises that keep our towns and villages across the country going. In the Labour Party's view, the best way to do that is to target supports from the perspective of energy supports, training, staff retention and, indeed, a wholesale analysis and review of the commercial rates sector. We believe that is the best way to support those companies that we are all concerned about. Of course, there is a consequence for every decision that we take.”
“The hospitality VAT rate cut will be introduced from 1 July, next Wednesday. Of course, we all know that for every tax cut there is a consequent cost for the taxpayer. Can the Tánaiste put on the record of the House his assessment of the full-year of this particular VAT cut?”
“Staff are being moved to currently unstaffed beds in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital because management there are simply not allowed to recruit the staff that they can prove they need to staff those new beds. Does the Tánaiste agree with this robbing-Peter-to-pay-Paul strategy? It is unacceptable.”
“Some 14 step-down beds are to be removed from the Cottage Hospital in Drogheda. This will leave Ireland's largest town with no transitional care beds whatsoever. On Tuesday, up to 30 staff at the Cottage Hospital were told that their jobs were being unilaterally moved to the Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital. This move is being justified by the HSE on the basis that there will be a net gain of step-down beds in Louth and Meath by the end of 2026 but I know for a fact that there are no plans at this point to staff those additional beds in a new unit in Ardee. What is actually happening is that the service in the Cottage Hospital is being gutted.”
“However, this is designed to avoid any ambiguity that might arise, especially in relation to the requirement of some cancer survivors who are in remission to receive ongoing hormonal treatment. That would apply, as the Minister of State is aware, primarily in the case of breast cancer survivors who have had a HER2-positive diagnosis and also in the case of some prostate cancers that are typically hormonally-driven and require the taking of medication on an ongoing basis. I would appreciate it if the Minister of State would put on record his position on the amendment. It would be a worthwhile exercise in itself just to establish the advice he has. I ask him to provide some clarity on his position on this and some reassurance that the Bill and the provision as currently drafted is, for want of a better description, bulletproof.”
“The intention is to strengthen and galvanise it and ensure there is no ambiguity in any respect in terms of how this provision is interpreted by the insurance industry when people are in the position that they ought to have access to disregards and where there may be issues around it, intentional or otherwise. I think the Minister of State accepts this was proposed in good faith and in the spirit that we want to see the full Bill implemented so that there will not be any ambiguity whatsoever about any definitions in it, such as about what "remission" or "five years beyond active treatment" mean because those two tests are contained in the Bill. I am aware the Minister of State has received clear advice on his view there is no ambiguity and that the full intention and spirit of the Bill will be implemented.”
“I move amendment No. 1: In page 5, between lines 31 and 32, to insert the following: “(7) For the purposes of this section, a person is not precluded from being in complete remission by reason only of the fact that the person is receiving— (a) anti-hormonal medications, or (b) any form of preventative therapy or medicine intended to reduce the risk of recurrence of cancer following the end of active cancer treatment.” I thank the Minister of State for the way in which he has engaged with me on this matter in recent days. I think he accepts that we in the Labour Party proposed this amendment in good faith. I might describe it as a belt and braces approach to the particular provision in the Bill.”
“This is something that will need the Minister of State's attention and the attention of his Government colleagues ahead of October's budget. This is necessary until such time as we have the renewables and retrofitting revolution that is far too slow to happen in this country.”
“It is the people on incomes of €70,000 to €80,000 or below and who are not captured by the fuel allowance scheme who require support. We have used our very sophisticated taxation and revenue collection system before. The Revenue Commissioners is an extraordinary organisation and one of the best organisations in the public service in terms of how it responds to the requirements of the Government and the State. It demonstrated that during the pandemic, introducing the employment wage subsidy scheme and, subsequently, the temporary wage subsidy scheme based on the information and expertise it had. It is very easy to identify the people who would benefit from a targeted energy credit like this. The simple fact of the matter is that the political will to do it is not there.”
“We use the social welfare system successfully. I think there is a universal welcome across the House for the expansion of supports for people who depend on the State for their income. The extension of the fuel allowance by a number of weeks is welcome while the inclusion of other cohorts of society in the scheme has been welcomed by everybody. It has been universally acclaimed and welcomed. It is necessary. However, the people who are caught in the middle are the problem. We know for people on higher salaries that the cost-of-living crisis and the increases in energy bills are, dare I say it, inconveniences - things they would prefer not to see but things that, by and large, people on good incomes can absorb.”
“I speak in support of this amendment. We in Labour have been long-standing supporters of the proposition that we would use the taxation system to assist people who are finding it very difficult to meet their energy bills. The evidence before us about people's problems meeting electricity bills and utility bills more generally is very clear and apparent to all of us in our everyday work as TDs in our constituencies and our engagement with people on a day-to-day basis. This is a real problem for working people who I remind the Minister of State did not have the benefit of the indexation of their PAYE tax bands, rates and credits last year. They are falling further behind and are finding the going increasingly difficult. This is about using the taxation system to target support where it is evidently needed the most.”
“That is why in this motion we are also calling for targeted energy credits and SEAI supports for households in budget 2027. The motion also makes clear Labour’s opposition to the decision made in the Critical Infrastructure Bill to disapply section 15 of the climate Act. This is constitutionally dubious and is wide open to challenge. That Bill is concluding in the Seanad this week and it is not too late for the Government to change course.”
“Research by Friends of the Earth shows that Irish households paid an estimated €715 million more in electricity bills from 2015 to 2023 directly due to data centres. That is an equivalent of some €360 per household. In effect, in Ireland, under this Government, each bill payer is charged a data centre tax. The same research shows that Irish households face a further €1.43 billion in rising bills up to 2034 because of the projected growth in data centres. That will mean an extra €644 per household on household bills. These are the same bills for which the Government used taxpayers' money to help pay for energy credits in recent years. Think about that – these are effectively more taxpayer subsidies for data centres. These increases I referred to will disproportionately impact on lower income households.”
“It will argue that data centres create jobs. The reality is they take up massive acreage and resources and create only a comparatively small handful of long-term jobs. As the motion lays out, over 22% of our electricity is already being used up by data centres and by 2030 that will be over 30%. At the current rate of growth, it will not be long before over half of our electricity is eaten up by this one source. As colleagues have said, Ireland has the highest electricity prices in the EU. The fact we are also the European leader in data centre permissions is no accident, and this Government needs to join the dots. There is a direct link between the proliferation of data centres in the country and ever-rising energy bills.”
“As my colleague Deputy Smith said, the Government's countermotion is embarrassing and shameful. Really, it is a Comical Ali-type approach to politics. It does good government, and the idea of good government, a disservice. Frankly, we need to put the breaks on the development of data centres, at least until our grid capacity increases and household bills come down. If this Government put more energy, pun intended, into developing our offshore wind capacity rather than developing more data centres, we might build the kind of resilience we need in our grid for industry and domestic customers to avail of plentiful and cheap energy, but as usual the Government is putting the cart before the horse and is left wondering why the cart is not pulling. The Government has made, and will make today, all kinds of thin arguments to say we are wrong.”
“We need to reflect on that if we are serious about ensuring the punishment fits the crime, if we can use the word "crime", in broad cases of this nature.”
“That is simply not good enough in this day and age. It was never good enough and it is certainly not good enough now. I would have particular words for any vested interest that stands in the way of us improving and enhancing this legislation and the sanctions available to the State to address these issues. It is interesting that there is an EU directive in place, 2024/1203 and that there is a criminal law element to but that we have decided not to transpose it. It deals with the question of ecocide and provides for, for example, eight years imprisonment for what is described as natural persons who may be involved in or found guilty of major habitat destruction. We have decided not to transpose that directive for a variety of reasons.”
“I thank the Minister of State for his response and I eagerly await the evolution of the process he has outlined. This is not a new issue. My colleague, Deputy Eoghan Kenny, did a lot of work to raise awareness of the mass fish kill in the Blackwater last year and of the lacuna in the law at the moment in terms of the requirement for the sorts of sanctions that would be commensurate with a violation of the nature of what happened in the Blackwater. Similarly, the same perspective can be applied to this particular matter on the River Glyde in County Louth. I am not aware of any case where an EPA licence was in place and was removed from somebody who was successfully prosecuted in the District Court or anywhere else for actions that led to a mass fish kill and ecological destruction in an area. We need to reflect on that.”
“When will we see changes in the law where the punishment will fit the crime? It has been said to me that in some cases, it is easier for operators to take the fine rather than spend the money they need to spend in order to up their game.”
“I do not for a minute want to prejudice the outcome of any investigation or any possible prosecution that might arise but we know that in all likelihood in cases like this, it is the provisions of the 1959 Act that are used so those responsible can probably sleep soundly at night. The cases are heard in the District Court. This is, of course, where you will hear shoplifting cases, public order offences and traffic offences but nothing of this scale. History tells us that those who are responsible for major fish kills attract very small fines. They are a pittance. This is ecocide. That is what it is. It is the mass destruction of habitats and is dangerous to public health. These are matters that ought to be dealt with through our legal code in the Circuit Court, at the very least, or, indeed, the High Court.”
“When we describe this as "waste", "effluent" or "discharge", it minimises the impact and the issue. There were 20,000 fish killed in the River Glyde last week, including Atlantic salmon, eels, brown trout, pikes, minnows and course fish, and 25 km of the finest river in mid-Louth was destroyed. Inland Fisheries Ireland, IFI, responded rapidly. I spoke to their representatives last week about this and I commend their actions. The Dee and Glyde fishing association does tremendous work. It is a custodian of the river. I have known those people for many years and have worked with them in the past. They have worked hard to protect and maintain the river's ecosystem.”
“This is not news either. From my research over the last few days, I have been looking at some of the issues that have arisen around the country. In recent years a farmer who was found to be responsible for leaking animal shit, because that is what it is and I am sorry to use the colloquialism, into the River Tracton in Cork, received a conviction and fine of €2,000 in the local District Court in 2022. There were 5,000 fish killed. In the same year, in a case in Monaghan close to where the Minister of State was last week, there was a €400 fine and €5,000 in costs. His infraction was that silage effluent from his farm was found in a watercourse - more shit. I am sorry to use the colloquialism. I would not usually do that but I do not want to beat around the bush.”
“I appreciate that the Minister of State is here to take this Topical Issue. I have a simple question to put to him. When are people, individuals or corporate bodies, whose actions destroy our rivers and habitats going to see a law change that would see those responsible for the destruction of those habitats possibly face jail? The Minister of State was on the banks of the River Glyde in County Louth last week where he saw some of the remains of the 20,000 dead fish. He spoke to members of the Ardee and Glyde Fishing Development Association and some local representatives, who were pictured with him. He admitted that the fines and sanctions available to the State to prosecute those responsible for polluting our rivers and habitats are inadequate. He said they are "not fit for purpose". I suggest that this is a classic understatement.”
“My only regret is that the time given to this Bill by the Government is not in any way in accordance with the significance of what we are doing here tonight. That is regrettable. I hope it is something the Minister reflects on. I also hope sufficient time will be provided in the Seanad for amendments on Committee and Report Stages to finesse and nuance the legislation and deal with the gaps. It is of such historic significance that I believe the Minister should give it due recognition and the time it deserves to be debated properly and nuanced and finessed.”
“The first part of my Bill, the Minister will recall, called for a formal State apology for the wrongs this State and our society perpetrated by our laws and our actions against the LGBT+ community. I was very proud that, arising from that legislation, the then Government agreed to issue a formal State apology in both Houses of the Oireachtas in the summer of 2018, marking the 25th anniversary of decriminalisation. Tonight is a milestone. It is a landmark. I pay tribute to people like Kieran Rose, Karl Hayden, who is with us here this evening, Eddie McGuinness, Brian Sheehan and other members of the LGBT restorative justice campaign, as well as successive Ministers, including Mr. Charles Flanagan, Deputy McEntee, the current Minister and others, and their officials for the contribution they have made to getting us to this point.”
“I very much appreciate the Minister's acknowledgement earlier in his opening contribution that the legislation I produced nine years ago was, in essence, the catalyst for the disregard propositions before us. For the bulk of the history of this State we made criminals of gay men because of who they were and who they loved. Many of those we did not criminalise received public order records, cautions and so on. They were imposed on them by an uncaring State at a very different time in our history. The Bill I presented in 2017 referred to the need for exonerations of men who had criminal records for having sexual relations that were no longer offences under the law.”
“We accept that Ireland has taken a leadership role on Palestine internationally. We have done that over the decades but, by God, the bar internationally is disgracefully low. We need to include services in this Bill for it to have a meaningful impact, the kind of impact we all want to see.”
“Investment will stay here despite all of the protestations to the contrary. We cannot and should not relent on the basis of some form or threatened form of imagined economic blackmail from US politicians or anyone else. Even the war criminal, Netanyahu, is losing the support of Trump and he needs to wake up to that reality. In any case, this is hardly the point. We have a moral and ethical responsibility and a legal and political responsibility to take every conceivable action, to use every lever available to us, as Deputy Smith has said, to oppose, counter and stop genocide. The question here this evening is whether we all, as legislators, public representatives and citizens of this Republic, can truthfully and honestly say we have done that to the best of our ability.”
“To say the least, the debate in the public sphere on this proposition over the last three years has been interesting. I was not born yesterday. I have been around quite a number of years. I have a very keen ear attuned to economic trends and questions of investment in Ireland and jobs. I am a member of the Labour Party. My principal purpose in politics is to ensure that the material conditions of the Irish people are looked after and improved, and that we have meaningful, good, decent, well-paying work with good conditions, but the kind of shape-throwing we have seen by commentators who say they have an insight into the minds of US investors about the impact on Ireland of taking a stand like this, including services in this Bill, is, to say the very least, overdone. As we know, capital has no conscience.”
“In fact, the legislation published back in 2018, which passed Second Stage in the Seanad, ought at this stage to be on the Statute Book already. We in the Labour Party did not need Israel's genocide in Gaza, the illegal detention of peace activists by Israel or the actions of fascists like Ben-Gvir a few weeks ago to persuade us that a serious and practical stand needed to be taken against the genocidal regime in Israel. It is never the wrong time to do the right thing. Services should be included. They should be at the heart of this Bill for all of the reasons my colleague, Deputy Duncan Smith, has outlined. I accept this is a contested space. To me, the debate on where one stands on this issue is not one of legal interpretation. It does not break down on legal lines, it breaks down on political, ideological, moral and ethical lines.”
“I am pleased to see our colleague, Senator Frances Black, here this evening. It is only right and correct that she is here. I was proud to have been one of the co-signatories of the originally intended occupied territories Bill back in 2018 - the Bill, the Minister will not need reminding, that included services. The addition of services is legally complex but it is also permissible. It is politically difficult for this Government. That is the reality and that is why it is being excluded. My colleague, Deputy Duncan Smith, set out in very clear terms the position of my Labour Party colleagues and me. We are of the very clear and unequivocal and unambiguous view, that the legislation produced in 2018 - the legislation we need to see here today - should be reflective of that text and spirit.”
“When these measures were first announced a couple of months ago, the Labour Party said there was nothing in them for PAYE workers. There is nothing in this Bill for PAYE workers either and the Government will reap a political whirlwind because of that.”
“If the Minister of State is serious about giving working people a break he would use this Bill to address that issue, and use the resources that we have available to index PAYE workers' tax-rate bands and credits back to January to ensure that there is some respite for such workers. We know from experience that will not be the case. PAYE workers are being told in this Bill that they are going to have to wait. We have been told time and again that with the excise duty cuts this Bill will legislate to bring into primary legislation, based on the financial resolutions a number of weeks ago, there is some respite from high prices at the pumps for diesel and petrol for PAYE workers. That is an afterthought. PAYE workers certainly were not the target and the focus of this measure.”
“The answer is addressing once and for all the ridiculously high energy charges in this country for high consumers of energy like the hospitality sector. It is also a real reform of the commercial rates system for good bricks-and-mortar businesses around the country that employ significant cohorts of people. We must also ensure that staff in those sectors can have a real career. That used to be the case when organisations like CERT trained people to a very high international standard to be chefs, hospitality managers and so on. That is what we need to look at rather than the short-term sugar rush of VAT cuts, which improve the bottom line for a short period of time for hospitality businesses that are finding it difficult.”
“Wait until that particular measure goes live on 1 July when people understand that the money that should have been going to them for some tax adjustments is going to McDonald's, Supermac's, KFC and so on. It is absolutely bizarre. It is bad economics and it is even worse politics. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil will have some explaining to do to constituents when they realise what is happening. Nobody is saying for a moment that parts of the hospitality sector do not need some structural reforms. They do, but decisions taken to reintroduce a lazy rinse-and-repeat VAT cut that has been around in one form or another since 2011 is not the answer to the structural problems small hospitality businesses face.”
“It is reported in The Irish Times today that the Tánaiste said yesterday - I found this remarkable - when he was talking about his favoured retail savings and investment scheme, which he has announced and reannounced about 562 times now, that PAYE workers are "irked" over the fact that income tax bands, rates and credits were not adjusted to allow for inflation this year. They are more than irked. They are incredibly annoyed about this because they can feel the impact in their day-to-day budgets and on their inability to manage their weekly and monthly budgets and household costs. That PAYE workers are irked is the understatement of the year. They have been left behind.”
“That makes no economic sense whatsoever. What is more is that all of this is being paid for by the working class having to forgo a small breather on their income tax, with hard-earned pay rises swallowed up by inflation and the failure to ensure that rates, bands and credits kept pace with the very inflation we are trying to combat at the moment and that has proven to be so problematic for consumers across the country. All told, because of those fateful decisions taken last October and reflected in the Finance Act giving effect to the budget measures, what we are dealing with now is effective pay cuts for many low- and middle-income workers at the very time when the cost of everything is going up.”
“I think the Minister of State will agree that politics is fundamentally about the generation or the creation of resources and how we redistribute those finite and precious resources. The bizarre decision was taken to cut VAT for the hospitality sector to boost the bottom line of restaurants and cafés instead of providing some respite to working people. I have said it time and again and the Minister of State has seen all the evidence as much as I have. The objective, impartial evidence shows that this cut will favour the chains, which do not need it, rather than the small independent operators that we know are finding the going tough. What makes it all the more bizarre is the fact that we are using tax policy and how we distribute our precious resources to narrow the tax base for a sector that, in its totality, is adding jobs by the week.”
“It gives the Government the chance to change course and to be more ambitious than has hitherto been the case. However, in last year's budget, and it is important that we reflect on this, it was decided that at a full-year cost to the taxpayer of €680 million, the VAT rate in the hospitality sector would go from 13% to 9%. I have heard people argue that this is Government policy. We know it was Fine Gael policy before the 2024 general election, but so is the indexation of PAYE tax bands, rates and credits. We all know politics is about choices. I am comfortable with that and people in this House should be comfortable about it. It is the bread and butter of politics.”
“It is why we in Labour Party produced a number of weeks ago, and the Minister of State responded to this particular initiative, a mini-budget, for the want of a better description, to try to assist working families between now and the budget. These are people who have been told to wait for a breather from the cost-of-living crisis that is so badly affecting households across the country. We know that in the budget, as I said, PAYE workers were left behind and we know why. Core social welfare payment increases have been eroded by inflation. The tax package favoured hospitality over working people. This Finance Bill gives the Government the chance to be more ambitious for working people, who are the real engines and the real producers of goods and resources in this economy.”
“All this is playing out before we see a likely two or three hikes to variable mortgage interest rates over the next few months and the inevitable energy price rises as we face into the winter, as if domestic energy prices in Ireland were not already high enough. Allied with ever-rising grocery price rises, no sign of the €200-a-month childcare we were promised or a break in college fees, rising health insurance and back-to-school costs and so on, households are in very real and present trouble. However, you would not think it from this Finance Bill or from the Government's actions over the last few weeks and months. Much of this difficulty can be traced back to decisions made in budget 2026. Here is the truth: no matter what way you want to spin it, PAYE workers were left behind.”
“That is not a good place to be for any government. I would not read too much, if I were the Tánaiste, into a by-election win in Galway. Local circumstances were at play there and candidate quality and so on. PAYE workers and the trade union movement will, I guarantee the Minister of State, be much more muscular when it comes to pursuing pay claims and improved conditions based on the message sent after last Easter's fraught events. The silent discontent in households across the country is real because the impact of this cost-of-living crisis is very real. It is affecting people day in, day out, the choices they make and the limited resources they have.”
“That, I think, is the one thing that unites us all in this House. Any of us with any sense, however, know that no government, regardless of how fortunate this country is in terms of the surpluses we post year in, year out, can insulate every home and business from the effects of inflation. Anybody who pretends we can is simply playing political games. What divides us here is how the resources we do have to help have been deployed and on what basis. The truth is that close to €750 million was dished out to a noisy group that stopped much of the country from getting to work to buy its silence and to placate it, and that has now been entrenched in this legislation. The other truth is that PAYE workers looked on at the events after last Easter and the reality dawned on them that this must be how you do business with this Government.”
“I am pleased to speak on behalf of the Labour Party on this Bill, but I will speak predominantly about what is not in the Bill, more so than what is in it and the effect of its provisions. Day in and day out, we see the impact of the cost-of-living permacrisis of the past few years. The Minister of State knows only too well - all the evidence shows this - that the impact is felt most acutely by those who are on low and middle incomes and those who depend on the State for their small incomes. We know the outside or exogenous causes of this: a global pandemic, closely followed by war on the continent of Europe and then the effects of Trump and Israel's insane folly in Iran. We can but hope that we are near the endgame of that and that fuel prices in the world's economy can get to a point where we can all catch a breath.”
“This is very much on brand for this Government: make important decisions when the Dáil is in recess, with no accountability and with Ministers not being available to be held to account by this House for their own budgets for 2027 and their own Estimates in advance of budget 2027. This is a very significant development from the Minister for public expenditure. There are alternatives to the introduction of levies across Departments. We could look at, for example, reforming our taxation system and ensuring we introduce tax on wealth and assets in a more significant way to pay for the increased public services we all agree we need to introduce, but the Government has decided not to do that.”
“That commitment to engage honestly and transparently should extend to Government Ministers and the Departments being required to come back to the Minister for public expenditure and reform well before 17 July with their very clear plans as to how these levies will impact services in their respective Departments. The reality is that the Dáil is rising on 16 July, and I do not believe that it is a coincidence that the deadline of 17 July was set. We do need accountability in this House. We know that, for example, the medium-term expenditure framework was published the day after the Dáil rose last December. That is a very significant five-year plan from the point of view of the fiscal position of this country and how we sustain our economy going forward.”
“The problem is that the Minister, Deputy Chambers, has put a deadline of 17 July on Departments coming back to him with their cost-cutting proposals. I am no conspiracy theorist, but that is the day after the Dáil rises - zero accountability from this Government over the summer on the kinds of cuts we will see next year. Will the Tánaiste commit to giving us honest figures on demographic costs and the cost of maintaining existing levels of service this year and next? Will he confirm that there will be no further asks through significant supplementary budgets being brought to the House this year for various Government Departments? I directly ask him the following question and I expect a response. What kinds of cuts does he feel need to take place in health to fund the costs in education?”
“This is on top of the fact that the HSE has overspent to the tune of €250 million in the early part of this year alone. Taken in the round, then, as we speak, the Department of Health and the HSE are now on the hook for at least €425 million this year and next. The Government says that pay in health will remain untouched. That will be the case for the Department of justice as well. Which services, then, will be cut or scaled back? Which planned new services will be stalled? All of us who are health service users have a right to know. It is more money, not less, that our under-pressure health services need, and there is a limit to the efficiencies and reforms that can be extracted from a service that is already under very significant pressure.”
“We ask every year how much is needed to meet the growing needs in special education. In budget 2026 we were sold a pup but, more importantly, so were the very families and children who need that support. Weeks ago we were told of an astonishing €646 million black hole in the Department of education. How did the Tánaiste and his colleagues get budget 2026 so badly wrong? What is the Government's answer? A levy, effective cuts by another name, in 2027 to every Department's budget, even before pre-budget talks open. Getting direct answers from various Ministers over the past few weeks on how this will work has been like pulling teeth. What do we know? We know that the Minister for Health, for example, has said in replies to me that she will have to find €175 million in savings to plug the hole in education.”
“It is important that the Opposition keeps the Government honest on public spending. It is important too that reliable figures are given to the Opposition ahead of the annual budget so we know exactly what it costs to fund education, health and other important services. That has not been the case in recent years. We need to know exactly what it costs to fund existing services, the extra money that is needed to keep the show on the road and what money is needed for new measures. We in Labour believe honest politics means keeping the Opposition honest too. Last year the Department of public expenditure and reform refused to give out these demographic costs or information as to what it would take to maintain existing levels of service. We were met with triangulation and obfuscation.”