Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There are ways in which we can do this. The Minister could have looked at many of the proposals we put forward that would deal with the cost of living for those people, for example, who need additional social welfare supports and renters who need additional supports. He could have reduced childcare fees by two thirds over two years, as we suggested. He could have helped middle-income families with the cost of sending their children to education by reducing their tax by €500 this year, which would help with increases in the cost of living they experienced. He could have done all of that so the Minister should not talk to or lecture me about not having the right to talk about people and the cost of living. The public will make that decision in due course.

I ask the Minister, because he is again diverting, about the cost of living crisis in respect of energy.

He does not seem to get it, so he leaks out stuff that he is reacting, because everybody is talking about it. He does not want to give us credit for anything. That is fine. I do not care, to tell the truth. The Minister butchered that scheme. It was not just us who told him so. The people in the hospitality sector told us he had made the scheme unworkable. That is the problem, but that is neither here nor there.

The issue is what we will do here and now. The Minister needs to wake up to the reality of where people are at. There has been a 71% increase in home heating oil, which is the way 37% of the population heat their homes. There have been massive increases in energy prices and in gas and electricity prices, and the Minister has nothing to offer them: nothing; nada; zilch. That is not good enough. His counterparts throughout Europe, where homeowners have lower energy costs than here, are responding. We have given the Minister umpteen solutions and he has not responded to one of them, and that is not good enough. He needs to get his act together and come forward with a package that responds to the here and now of where people are at. The Minister needs to wake up to the realities of where people are at.

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