Paschal Donohoe has been blasted in the Dáil during a blazing row on the cost of living.
The Rural Independents group of TDs had brought a motion calling for a ‘mini-budget’ to help people, especially farmers and those living in rural areas, beat rising prices.
But it soon got heated when the leader of the group, Tipperary TD Mattie McGrath, tackled Mr Donohoe for being “completely out of touch.”
Mattie McGrath blasted the Minister for Finance, saying that “(Oliver) Cromwell wasn’t as bad” in his “persecution” of ordinary Irish people.
And he added that Mr Donohoe and his government colleagues in Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil “loves the big business conglomerates, you love ‘em,” at the expense of ordinary workers and small farmers.
Mr McGrath said: “The cost increases out there are shocking.
“The cost of living is so high.
“I have not time to repeat them all, but I have them.
“We all know when we consider mom's purse of a Friday evening.
“All of us who have children in college or school know of the costs of school uniforms, books, you name it.
“Concerning the agricultural sector, the Government is welded to the big conglomerates and the multiple billions of profit they make.
“Not a word is said to them.
“Fine Gael is welded to them and now Fianna Fáil is as well.
“The latter used to be the party of the ordinary people and now is the party of the rich conglomerates.”
Mr McGrath also had some criticism for the third party in Government, the Greens, and the carbon tax they have prioritised.
He said: “Take this joke of a carbon tax.
“Of course we voted against it.
“We are opposed to it because it is a punitive tax, is not fairly spread and hits the weakest and most vulnerable people and rural dwellers the hardest.
“Unless they walk, they cannot get any place without a motor vehicle.
“The Minister's party bought into government and into power and clung onto it by supporting the Greens.
“It is dancing their merry tune since forming the Government.”
Mr Donohoe went on the attack too when he got a chance to speak, highlighting the lack of costings in the independents’ proposals.
He said: “It is independent of common sense in that yet again it is bringing forward proposals with no recognition of how much they would cost.
“It is because of that it is devoid of credibility and empty in any sense of recognition or credibility with regard to what needs to be done to help those who are suffering the most.”
Mr Donohoe added: “the Rural Independent Group brings forward a proposal for a mini budget with no idea as to how much it would cost and how it would be paid for is not only a lack of help to those who need help the most, it is an insult to them.”
