Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I accept that, as Deputy Burton said, it has not happened here yet, but we must not allow it to happen. Sinn Féin should not have passed that Bill. This is the point about whether Stormont is in place. We have to resist these measures regardless of who is in government and regardless of the Administration that is in place because these measures are vile and obnoxious. This is not welfare reform. Rather, it is an assault on the most vulnerable people in society.

I wish to make one brief point about issues that get obscured by all of this. I asked about this matter yesterday. I believe the yellow jackets protest to be an absolutely justified protest against fuel hikes in France. To what extent is the Taoiseach discussing this question with his European colleagues? We need urgent radical action on climate change but we must also ensure that action does not hit at vulnerable low-income people and rather is directed at the big polluters, including the fossil fuel industry and so on. It goes against what we are trying to do to allow public transport fares in this country to increase at a time when we need to get people out of their cars and into public transport.

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