Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

When the year-on-year provision for homeless services is increased, the Government is in essence acknowledging the emergency and disaster of its own policies. We need to ensure this country is a great place to grow up, get qualifications and join the workforce. We do not want people to be forever broke, straight into debt and without the hope of owning their own homes or securing a long-term, stable and affordable rental home. What really matters for people is securing such homes, investing in quality public healthcare and taking real measures to tackle the cost of living. We have lived through a summer of discontent. The reality is that hard-working people are facing into a cruel winter with rising childcare and high costs for food and energy. The cost-of-living crisis is not a joke or a game for people. It is their lives, and they have been living with the crisis for well over a year. This is not the first cost-of-living budget that has been required.

It is time for the Government to get serious about climate action, as my colleague, Deputy Nash, has said. It is, along with housing, the biggest failure of this Government. The Government is now closer to the next general election than the last. We need to see delivery and results. In our budget, the Labour Party called for climate action to be one of the issues that informs all other policies. We recognise that radical action is needed to address the issue. We are committed to addressing all the threats involved. Politics is about choices and it is clear that the Government has made its choices. The giddiness about the budget that I have seen in the corridors outside this Chamber is not reflected in the households and businesses up and down the country.

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