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

Any talk of economic recovery is rendered meaningless if the cost of living skyrockets, as it is doing for ordinary working people. The amount of tax relief the Government gave them in the budget was miserable for the average worker, against a background of an increase of between €500 and €1,000 in energy costs for many households, disproportionately hitting the less well off. Moreover, waste charge bills are increasing, private operators are profit-gouging, the price of TV packages is increasing, carbon tax, of course, is loaded on top of that, and rents continue to rise. What is the Taoiseach going to do?

Profits have gone through the roof in this country during this country, exponentially increasing, but the benefit of any recovery is wiped away by inflation and profit-gouging by State actors and private actors through taxes or price increases. What is the Taoiseach going to do? Does it not justify what we have for a long time called for, namely, actual controls on rents; abandoning plans to increase carbon tax and doing something to reduce energy prices; and controlling or even abolishing charges such as property tax, or at least ensuring people are not hit with it, and waste charge increases by private companies?

See this speech in context