Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Many people are still reeling from the fact that in the middle of a cost-of-living emergency, the Government has further increased the costs of home heating oil and other fuels this week. Imagine how those families felt when they learned in this morning's Irish Independentthat the Government provided a mechanism for millionaires, with net assets of millions, to put off paying taxes during the Covid pandemic. Why is it that the Government can always find schemes to benefit wealthy people? In this instance, it allows them to warehouse €6 million in taxes without paying interest, yet the Government constantly finds a reason to delay, frustrate or simply refuse to support families and workers in heating their homes, getting to work or feeding their families.

As was predicted in this House for many months, we now know that groceries are the latest necessity to see significant price hikes. Does the Taoiseach now accept the Government needs to introduce a comprehensive package of measures to address the cost-of-living crisis? This crisis was made worse by the Government's actions this week through another carbon tax hike.

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