Category: Finance

CSO data shows profit-margins rising in middle of cost of living crisis Proper scrutiny of groceries market needed In Leaders’ Questions today, 26th April, Labour finance and enterprise spokesperson Ged Nash TD reiterated his call on the Taoiseach to request of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) a review of grocery price hikes and…

Surcharge levy should be placed on all data centres Pressing need to re-evaluate State “open door” policy for data centres Labour Finance Spokesperson Ged Nash has today (Monday 17th October) called on the government to ban data centres from the new energy relief scheme announced as part of Budget 2023 and to put in place…

€20 increase must be provided Labour social protection spokesperson Seán Sherlock has demanded that government meet the rate of inflation and provide a €20 increase to social welfare payments. Speaking in advance of Budget 2023, Deputy Sherlock said double payments must made in October and December to give people a chance this winter. Deputy Sherlock…

Windfall Tax to be redistributed to those who need it most Energy price cap to keep the heat on for households Emergency eviction ban while supply comes on stream Launching its Alternative Budget today (Thursday 22nd September) Labour has demanded a radical package of measures to protect households this winter. Speaking today, Labour finance spokesperson…

Commission recommendations align with Party’s call for a renewed focus on taxes on wealth Responding to the publication of the Commission on Taxation and Welfare’s report, Labour Finance Spokesperson Ged Nash said: “The Tax and Welfare Commission report is an honest, independent assessment of how our taxation and welfare system needs to be reorientated and…

Labour Party spokesperson on employment rights Marie Sherlock has tonight (13th September) said the proposed increase in the minimum wage amounts to a real cut in wages for the lowest paid as we face double digit inflation . The six month wait to January 2023 is simply intolerable as more and more people face poverty…

Drogheda’s Premier Periclase plant ‘canary in coalmine’ as redundancy notices set to be issued Planned energy supports won’t be sufficient to stave off job losses in industry  Labour finance spokesperson Ged Nash has called today (Tuesday, 7th September) on the government to create a new short-term wage support scheme to help protect jobs and firms most at…

Mortgage interest rate cap needed now Responding to reports that the European Central Bank (ECB) will soon hike its lending rates twice by the end of the year, Labour finance spokesperson Ged Nash said the Government has no option but to support Labour’s legislation to cap mortgage interest rates in Ireland. Deputy Nash said: “People…

Government sitting on Low Pay Commission recommendation on minimum wage  Report must be published now and rise introduced in October, not January  Labour finance spokesperson Ged Nash has said both private and public sector workers need an immediate and significant pay rise to combat the cost of living crisis. Responding to Bank of Ireland’s Economic…

Any potential rise in European Central Bank (ECB) interest rates will clobber almost half a million hard-pressed homeowners according to Labour finance spokesperson Ged Nash. Speaking in advance of an expected ECB interest hike tomorrow (Thursday 21st July) Deputy Nash called on the Government to adopt Labour’s recently introduced Bill and change the law to…

Labour’s Finance spokesperson Ged Nash has hit out at the decision by AIB to withdraw cash services at 70 branches across the country. He said: “This tone deaf decision taken by executives of a majority State-owned bank who appear to be accountable to nobody is another nail in the coffin for relationship banking in Ireland….

Labour finance spokesperson Ged Nash has demanded that government commit to bringing forward a budget to this summer in recognition of the real financial crisis many families are facing right now. Deputy Nash said families have been left behind and let down by the government and need serious intervention before the back to school costs…

Labour Senator Mark Wall has today (Monday, 11th April) demanded an urgent review into how Exceptional Needs Payments (ENPs) are currently being processed and advertised. The call comes following official department figures showing payments for ENPs are down by almost 50% since 2019. Senator Wall said: “It’s clear that the government is failing to get…

Labour spokesperson on Further and Higher Education Senator Annie Hoey has demanded that the Minister engage with Bank of Ireland following the revelation of the winding up of the Graduate Entry Medicine (GEM) loan. Senator Hoey said: “The winding up of the GEM loan by Bank of Ireland is deeply concerning. As the last bank…

Labour finance spokesperson Ged Nash has today (Friday, 1st April) issued a stark warning that hundreds of thousands of Ulster Bank and KBC customers could be potentially exposed to weeks of personal and business banking chaos when the two banks leave the market this year. The warning comes following an admission by the Governor of…

Labour Party Finance and Public Expenditure Spokesperson, Ged Nash, has today (Monday, 17th, January) called on the Minister for Finance, Pascal Donohoe, to articulate clear and committed support for a decade of green investment at a meeting of the Euro area finance ministers later today. Speaking in advance of the Eurogroup meeting that is set…

Labour Party Finance Spokesperson, Ged Nash TD, has described comments made by Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe in this morning’s papers about a multi-annual tax cutting package as wrong for our economy and society. Deputy Nash said: “The Minister’s pledge to embark on a tax-cutting crusade is the wrong thing do. It is a transparently…

• Package of measures needed not piecemeal approach • Labour proposed targeted carbon tax credit • Three year rent freeze desperately needed Labour finance spokesperson Ged Nash has called on government to do more to tackle the soaring increase in the cost of living. Responding to the once-off €100 electricity credit proposed by government, Deputy…

• Labour repeats call for new German-style short-time work scheme • Failure to extend CRSS shows government at sixes and sevens Labour’s Finance spokesperson Ged Nash has welcomed the government’s eleventh-hour decision to restore the previous rates of the EWSS to businesses adversely affected by new public health restrictions. However, he said that the last-minute…

Labour leader Alan Kelly has called for a rethink of the current approach to public services in light of the increased cost of living in Ireland. With CSO figures confirming prices rising by 5.3% in the year to November, Deputy Kelly said inflation has totally outstripped increases in wages and ordinary hard working people are…

Labour Party Spokesperson on Finance and Public Expenditure & Reform Ged Nash has welcomed the November Exchequer returns that show Government revenue running €5.4bn over projected figures. However, Deputy Nash said that there was an issue about forecasting being so far off the mark and that it mitigated against proper planning and resource use and…

Tax relief for home workers promised by Govt must be backdated Labour employment spokesperson Marie Sherlock said the government must immediately assuage the concerns of workers in the night economy and restore the PUP payment in its entirety. Speaking following the news of restrictions to curb the spread of Covid, Senator Sherlock said that all…