Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Tánaiste's reply was most unconvincing. I do not think even she is convinced by the flawed and almost perverse argument she has presented. The people who go out to work and pay their taxes are also the ones who are casualties of the lack of investment in housing and health, child care and many other services. They are not two competing realities. They are one and the same and what they are telling us - I imagine they are also telling members of the Government this, unless they are living in a different or parallel universe - is that they are not prepared to tolerate any longer a position where there are more than 600,000 people on waiting lists for medical procedures; record numbers on hospital trolleys; people are unable to afford to pay their rent and people will never be able to aspire to home ownership. They are the tax paying, working people it seems the Government will insult in the budget with €1 or, if it goes along with its friends in Fianna Fáil, €1.50 a week or a little more according to its plan.

See this speech in context