Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Faoin Rialtas seo, tá an ghéarchéim tithíochta tar éis éirí ina tubaiste sóisialta. Tá na liostaí feithimh ospidéil ag éirí níos faide ná mar a bhí riamh agus tá an caighdeán maireachtála ag titim. Is é ceann de na fáthanna go mbeidh mise ag vótáil mímhuiníne sa Rialtas seo ná go bhfuil á teip iomlán air. Tá sé in am don athrú. An Taoiseach was right when he walked outside this House a number of years ago and declared to the world that the best interests of the Irish people were not served by a Government made up of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. How right he was, unfortunately, because we have seen over the past two years how those words have rung loud and true for workers and families throughout the State.

Since the election, we have seen rents increase and spiral out of control. The average rent in this State is now €18,000 per year while, in Dublin, it is more than €24,000. Since the election, house prices have continued to spiral, with the average price now almost €312,000. A whole generation has been locked out of home ownership. Under the Government, the housing crisis has got worse and worse. Today, there are 1.3 million people on hospital waiting lists. Many of them are waiting 12 hours and longer in emergency departments up and down this State. Healthcare has become less accessible, not more, to patients and families who are struggling.

Some children with additional needs still do not even know what schools they will be in, come August and September. We saw last week when families, whose homes are crumbling before their eyes, watched as the Government rammed a defective scheme through the Dáil that leaves them with tens of thousands of euro to come out of their own pockets. Many of them will be locked out of this scheme and locked into a future of despair.

We need a strong and inclusive economy that supports workers and families, but the failures of the Government in housing and childcare are damaging our economy and the workers who have built it. Under the Government, living standards have fallen faster than at any time since the financial crash that was brought on by a Fianna Fáil-led Government. Ireland is now the most expensive country in the EU for housing costs, including rent, mortgage rates and electricity. The Ireland of today, under Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Greens is an Ireland in which one in three are living in energy poverty. It is an Ireland where one in three are struggling to make ends meet and too many, struggling on low pay, struggle to build a future. They live in an Ireland where they feel they have no future.

The living standard of Irish households is below the European average; that is a fact. Under this Government, workers and families face mounting energy builds, transport costs and food prices, with many of them at breaking point. Struggling under a cost-of-living crisis, workers and families deserve a Government that hears them, listens to them and is willing to respond for them. Workers and families deserve a Government that is in touch with their concerns and that will take decisive action but, instead, they are faced with a Government that refuses to take action or bring forward an emergency budget. The message to them is to sit tight and buckle up because they are on their own, but a very different message is there for the vulture funds and the investment funds because this is a Government that is only all too quick to roll out the red carpet for those who want to exploit the housing crisis to the detriment of renters and home buyers.

This is a Government that has allowed the most vulnerable to wither on the vine and has only responded when it has been shamed into action. This is a Government that is out of touch, a Government that is out of ideas and a Government that is out of time. Today, the Dáil faces a simple question: are we heading in the right direction or the wrong direction under this Government? The answer is plainly clear for anybody to see in housing, health, the cost of living, mica and many other issues. Things are getting worse for far too many people. The Irish people have big ambitions for their country, their communities and their families, but they are stuck in a rut, because they are with a Government that has created more problems that it solves. This is a Government that is big on promises, but weak on delivery.

I have no confidence in a Government that has turned a housing crisis into a social disaster; I have no confidence in a Government that has brought our healthcare system to a standstill for so many patients; and I have no confidence in a Government that has failed to protect lower- and middle-income households from the sharp edge of the cost-of-living crisis. Members of this House should not either. That is why I am voting no confidence in this Government. It is time for change; it is time to replace this Government.

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