Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the points that have been made. The Government's approach in regard to the planning Bill is an absolute scandal. It is an abuse of the most basic processes in terms of how Parliament should operate.

I also wish to make a more fundamental point. It is proposed that we rise on Thursday, 14 July and the Dáil will not sit again until Wednesday 14 September. That is more than eight weeks at a time when people's incomes are effectively being eroded, day after day, by inflation running at close to 10%, when one in three people now live in energy poverty with obscene profiteering by the energy companies and the big food companies. The Dáil should not rise until it addresses this crisis, until it imposes price controls on the essentials such as diesel, gas and electricity, until it imposes a windfall tax on the profiteering that is happening, and until it acts to protect people from this crisis.

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