{"id":26400,"date":"2022-06-01T11:25:07","date_gmt":"2022-06-01T15:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=26400"},"modified":"2022-06-01T11:25:10","modified_gmt":"2022-06-01T15:25:10","slug":"sinn-fein-accuses-government-of-being-painfully-out-of-touch-on-rising-cost-of-living","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=26400","title":{"rendered":"Sinn F\u00e9in Accuses Government Of Being ‘Painfully Out Of Touch’ On Rising Cost Of Living"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Sinn F\u00e9in TD Pearse Doherty (PA Archive\/PA Images)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Government is \u201cpainfully out of touch\u201d on the mounting cost-of-living pressures facing families across Ireland

generic levitra<\/a><\/p> , Sinn F\u00e9in has claimed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sinn F\u00e9in TD Pearse Doherty criticized Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin for failing to bring forward further mitigation measures ahead of the next budget in October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In heated exchanges during leaders\u2019 question in the D\u00e1il, Mr Doherty called for the Government to produce a \u201creal and comprehensive plan\u201d in a mini budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Tuesday, Mr Martin said Ireland was facing a \u201cnew era\u201d of higher fossil fuel prices after EU leaders agreed to ban most Russian oil imports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Taoiseach said higher prices were the direct consequence of the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Addressing Mr Martin in the D\u00e1il, Mr Doherty said families were facing \u201csoul destroying\u201d choices as they struggled to feed their children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs families keep an eye to every euro they spend, yesterday you told them to prepare for a rocky road ahead, to be ready for a new era of high fuel and energy costs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is astonishing because workers and families have been walking the rocky road of extortionate fuel and energy costs for the best part of a year now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo tell people, as you did, who are already struggling to pay their bills, that they will have to tighten their belts even further, is painfully out of touch, while at the same time ruling out from you, Taoiseach, further government action until October at the very earliest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTaoiseach, does this government understand the pressure that real families and workers are under right across the state?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Doherty said families could \u201cnot hang on for another five months\u201d for further support measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTaoiseach, the Government\u2019s approach to this crisis has failed,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been piecemeal. It\u2019s been slow, it\u2019s been sluggish, and your measures haven\u2019t made a dent in the cost that people face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo now is the time Taoiseach, now is the time for a real and comprehensive plan of action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need a mini budget right now aimed at getting costs down right across the board. There is room within the public finances for the Government to act.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Martin said his remarks about a future of high fuel prices were \u201chonest\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt shouldn\u2019t be astonishing, as you have said, to tell the truth,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd what I said yesterday was telling the truth about a new era of an increase in pricing around fossil fuels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd the reason for that is that this week we will mark the grim milestone of 100 days since Russia\u2019s unjustified illegal and immoral invasion of Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added: \u201cThis war is having a very terrible impact on the world, primarily in terms of the deaths of so many Ukrainians and the terrible trauma that they\u2019re experiencing, but also a huge economic cost and disruption, triggering a massive spike in the cost of energy and with a huge increase in the cost of a vast range of other materials affecting food, agriculture, in terms of fertilizer and so on, which all input into our society and economic system and also, most devastating of all, it is causing and will cause a major food security crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Martin denied the Government had been slow to act, highlighting that the steps it has taken to tackle cost-of-living pressures since last October add up to \u20ac2.5 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He told Mr Doherty not to repeat claims from Russian president Vladimir Putin and Russia\u2019s ambassador to Ireland, Yuri Filatov, that western governments were to blame for soaring prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need to be careful that we don\u2019t fall into the Putin trap of laying all the blame domestically, because he wants western states to buckle, to buckle under the pressure that he deliberately and premeditatedly created,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPutin wanted to create an energy crisis. He wants to create a food crisis, and he wants to create a migration crisis, all part of the one immoral and unjustifiable war.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Addressing the Sinn F\u00e9in TD, Mr Martin added: \u201cYour objective is to lay all of the blame on the Government, just like the Russian ambassador did yesterday, exactly just like the Russian ambassador did yesterday \u2013 blame the Government or blame the governments of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut the key point is this \u2013 we have taken a lot of measures which you ignore and decide not to acknowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n

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