Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe has said the State's national debt is currently more than one-quarter of a trillion euro as it exits from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mr Donohoe said demands from Opposition parties to deal with the rising cost of living don’t reflect “the fact that we now have on a per capita basis one of the highest levels of public debt in the developed world”.
Speaking in the Dáil on Wednesday on a Labour Party motion to tackle the cost of living, Mr Donohoe acknowledged that many families, workers and employers find themselves dealing with a cost of living that is "rising far more quicker than has been the case in recent experience".
Mr Donohoe also said that while economic prospects are changing and getting better, risks prior to the pandemic such as risks relating to corporate tax could not be forgotten.
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Wage demands
Meanwhile, Labour leader Alan Kelly said his party will support trade unions who "are going to make wage demands", with inflation "by far the biggest issue facing the country".
Mr Kelly has said the level of inflation is “colossal” and that “families can’t take it”. Taoiseach Micheál Martin had said on Tuesday that “a wages spiral” must be avoided as it would create “a further inflationary spiral”.
Mr Kelly said on Wednesday: “The Taoiseach really put himself out in a bind yesterday when he went speaking about workers and the fact that he doesn’t believe that they should be looking for pretty modest wage increases.
“But his Tánaiste was saying the complete opposite, was actually agreeing with what I said inside here. I can tell you straight out: we are the Labour Party, we work with trade unions all the time. They’re going to make wage demands and we’re going to bloody well support them.”
The Tipperary TD said households are facing increases in costs of diesel, petrol, energy and basic food staples, and that the €113.50 electricity bill credit “isn’t going to wash”.
He said a person had written to him explaining that their sister worked in a supermarket and had described how “people are putting items back at the till when they realise the scale and the size of their bill”.
Reducing VAT
Labour's finance spokesperson Ged Nash called on the Government to look at reducing VAT on energy and fuel bills. The Louth TD said working people across the country are finding it "harder and harder by the week to make ends meet".
“Our own lived experience and that of the people who chose us to represent them tells us that ever-rising heating, electricity, transport and food costs are keeping far too many people from their sleep,” he said.
“Crisis is an oft-used and much-abused term, especially in here, but a cost of living crisis is exactly what we are living through, though you would not think so from the Government’s lamentable response to date.”
Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy said people are "genuinely" choosing between putting food on their tables or heating their homes.
“This is not something we can ignore, it is having a direct impact on the quality of life,” she said.
Sinn Féin TD Mairéad Farrell said her party was aware of current geopolitical tensions affecting the situation but that the Government “can’t blame external factors for their lack of action”.
Ms Farrell called for a three-year ban on rent increases, a stop to carbon tax hikes, a full plan of action from the Government in relation to childcare costs and also the tackling of rising insurance premiums.
