Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Doherty did not once refer to the cause of the crisis in his original contribution to this House, which we all know, because his objective is to lay all of the blame on the Government, just like the Russian ambassador did yesterday. The aim is to blame the government of the day.

The key point is that we have taken a lot of measures, which Deputy Doherty has ignored and has decided not to acknowledge. I referenced some of them. We have cut public transport fares by 20%, and fares for young people by 50%. We have lowered the threshold for the drug payment scheme to €80 per month, benefitting more than 17,000 families. We have brought forward a working-family payment budget increase. We abolished inpatient hospital charges for children. We capped annual rent increases at 2%. We also introduced significant supports for the different sectors of the economy affected by the very significant prices. I refer to hauliers, grain farmers and pig farmers, among others, who are affected. In addition, we have launched a significant national retrofitting scheme.

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