Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

I compliment Deputy McManus and commend her on bringing forward an excellent motion. The motion deals with the harsh realities of people's lives in the middle of a recession. We are in the cold winter of a recession, and we are coming into the seasonal winter and facing a number of budgets where this situation will be aggravated.

People are not able to heat their homes. Their electricity and gas supplies are being disconnected. Suddenly, tens of thousands of people are at risk of fuel poverty. The situation will not get better. It will continue to deteriorate.

We have seen social welfare cut-backs in the past two years as well as levies on taxpayers. Home owners are moving into negative equity and homes are being repossessed. We have seen the difficulties faced by small and medium sized enterprises in dealing with their energy bills. This is only the beginning of it. The Greens do not understand what is happening in the real world.

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