Christina Finn reports from Galway

THE LABOUR PARTY is proposing a €100 monthly shopping supplement for working families as part of a cost-of-living package in the upcoming budget.

At the party think-in in Galway on Thursday, Labour’s finance spokesperson Ged Nash said the support should be delivered across three months to those in receipt of Child Benefit.

Outlining his proposal, he said the party’s alternative budget proposes a €100 shopping supplement for recipients of Child Benefit to help families through “what’s going to be a very, very difficult winter to put food on the table”. 

“We know that when there is an energy crisis, when energy prices are high, there is a lag of a number of months in terms of food prices. We are facing into a very difficult winter indeed,” said Nash. 

It is understood the proposed payment would be per child and would be over a period of three months. 

The situation is particularly dire for working families, given that there was no indexation of PAYE last year, he added. 

“If people thought that the situation with grocery prices over the last two to three years was difficult, they ain’t seen nothing yet,” said Nash.

In addition, the party is calling for targeted energy credits paid for by windfall taxes on the windfall gains of energy companies, said Nash, who said these firms are experiencing “a very super profitable period over the last few years”. 

Calls for pay increases

Speaking about the recent threats of strike action by the public sector unions, Nash hit out at Public Expenditure Minister Jack Chambers, calling him “fiscally reckless”. 

He criticised the minister for not engaging meaningfully and productively with the public sector trade unions on the potential for a new public sector pay deal.

“The ask of the public sector trade unions is reasonable. Provide us with an idea of a landing zone in terms of where pay will be over the next couple of years, and we will engage.

“I absolutely understand why the public sector trade unions have balloted for industrial action, and I can absolutely understand why the vast majority, a record number of public sector workers, have voted in favour of industrial action, because they see that the only thing that this government seems to respond to is muscle. And that needs to change,” he added. 

Nash said public sector pay, in many ways, sets a benchmark for private sector pay across the country, with the Louth TD stating that people are not making ends meet. 

Mini poll: Do you think a €100 monthly shopping supplement (per child) for families should be included in this year’s budget?