Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Sinn Féin for bringing this motion. History repeats itself once again. The Rural Independent Group was the first to call for a mini-budget. Since then, we have heard many commentators speak about, and many rumblings about, mini-budgets. Why does it take so long for the Government to realise people have already started to cut back considerably and cannot afford to live? We are being driven into recession. The Government did not listen last October when I drove a truck in to Leinster House to highlight fuel issues. The Minister continues to take his €400 million per month in excessive tax off everybody in Ireland who is going hungry and cannot get to work. He is putting all the costs back on the consumer.

I was at a two-day agricultural show over the weekend where I had a stall. It is easily known some of the parties did not turn up to the show because they knew what they would get. An amount of people came to my stall, and I am talking about people of 15, 16, 18 or 20 years of age and their mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters, saying to me they cannot survive, they cannot do their apprenticeships or go to work. They were saying to me that, when it comes to education, their parents always gave them an allowance because they had no transport and helped them drive to school for the extra grinds they needed, but they cannot afford to do that now. They were asking why the Government is not protecting them. That was their question. Why is the Government not listening to the Independents? They were saying the Government does not see them anymore. A party and a Government that was supposed to represent the country does not see them anymore. This is coming from the young people in Ireland. It is no wonder the Minister's party will be obliterated, along with Fianna Fáil and the Green Party, for their lack of protection of the people here and now and then work for the future.

See this speech in context