Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to share time with Deputy Clarke.

The Sinn Féin motion recognises the pressures facing Irish workers and families. It recognises, in particular, that those who depend on social welfare payments, who include the elderly and people with disabilities as well as those who are seeking work, are worse off today than they were last year. It recognises the reality of the significant numbers of parents who are forced to use a food bank for the first time in their lives. Our motion recognises that, under Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, families have faced record-level grocery inflation, which is on top of soaring electricity costs. That is on top of rent costs, which were already among the highest in the western world when this Government came to office and are now so high that some of our brightest and best-educated young people are being forced to move abroad in order to get a roof over their heads. That is on top of the mortgage interest rate hikes that have put many of those who are lucky enough to have bought a home in fear of losing it because Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael refuse to support Sinn Féin's proposal for mortgage interest relief. That is on top of childcare costs, insurance costs, fuel costs and education costs, all of which, for Irish families, are higher than virtually anywhere else in the world.

The Sinn Féin motion not only recognises these realities, it also puts forward the measures that will give those families a break.

It calls for a spring bonus payment for those on social welfare, an extension of fuel allowance for those on the working family payment, and a discretionary fund to provide financial supports to struggling families. That is on top of our proposals for working families, including those on mortgage relief, to reduce the cost of motor fuel, home heating, and, crucially, rent and childcare. We proudly stand on the side the Government continually steps over.

On the other hand, the Government amendment lays bare how detached the Ministers are. There is just one single line in the amendment that refers to future supports. The amendment states the Government is "keeping the cost-of-living situation under review". That is the sum total of it, yet the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, has the audacity to come into the Chamber and lecture about the North and deflect in a dozen different directions without offering a single, positive proposition for families who, right now, do not know how they will survive. It all points to a Government that only moves on the cost-of-living crisis when Sinn Féin forces it to do so, and always does so little, so late. It points to a Government that is completely out of touch. It points to the urgent need for a change of Government.

See this speech in context