Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I was considering raising a number of points, starting with unfairness. Deputies will know the example of the person on €135,000 who will get a tax break of €830 and the person on €35,000 who will only get €190. I was going to go through each issue individually, but then I said "Maybe not", because what are we doing here? We all accept that we are in the middle of an energy crisis and the EU, in particular the European Commission, is finally getting around to dealing with it, albeit slowly. We know that the geopolitical situation is not going well for Vladimir Putin - I do not mean to take away from the difficulties that the people of Ukraine are facing - but the one thing he seems to have going for him is the financial and energy crises across the western world. We need to get our act together.

Under our proposal on capping prices, people would have short-term clarity until February, letting them know what bills they would be paying. As Deputy Stanley mentioned, we are calling for a windfall tax on energy companies to ensure leverage. This is a legitimate short-term solution. We know that there is a wider problem that needs to be dealt with and the EU should have been on the ball faster. Ireland also needs to play its part. We could have the old argument about how this Government was not going to do anything to decouple gas and electricity prices, but we are in a different place now and we need that decoupling to be delivered. Without decoupling, Ireland and every other country will face economic carnage.

Some of the budget's measures are good. We accept that a cut of €1,000 in the third level fees that someone must pay for his or her kid is a significant measure.

That is accepted. The problem is we have a budget built on a major flaw. We are still dealing with original crises, especially concerning health and housing. We welcome the €500 tax credit for renters, but we do not accept it will do the business. We have all seen the sky-high rents. Everybody here has quoted them, from one end of Ireland to the other. It is an abject failure. I am not sure how people are able to make some of these payments. I do not understand how the system has not fallen apart already. Until we start doing the business, that is, until we start to build enough houses, including council houses, affordable mortgages and cost rental, we will be going nowhere. This is where we really need to do things.

Regarding healthcare, we must deal with the fact of the backlog and the failures which mean we do not have the required positions in community and primary care. We all know the issues existing concerning disability services. Even where people have established rights to services, everything has been granted and assessments of needs successfully gone through, and all the rest of it, they cannot access those services. Until we deal with those aspects, we are an abject failure and there is no point in saying anything different.

As I said, some things are to be welcomed. Then I ask myself what it is we really want here. What is a worthwhile target and project? All I am going to say is that we need a new Ireland. I do not think anybody would find it shocking that a member of Sinn Féin would stand up and espouse Irish unity as a solution. I do not, however, mean it in the sense of a fourth green field. I am talking about the fact that on Saturday, 1 October, at 1 p.m. in the 3Arena, we are having a Together We Can event. It is a conversation on Irish unity, and includes several people who sit in this Chamber, from across all parties. I welcome this fact. The meeting obviously has people from North and South. It even has people like Colm Meaney, who would have acting skills on a similar par to mine.

The point of the event is that we are living on a changed island now. We are in a completely different place. We all know the old Orange state has gone. Beyond that, we now have an opportunity to build something better. When I am talking about doing that, I am talking about an Ireland where we all undertake these pieces of work together. It would be an Ireland where we would build a decent Irish national health service, develop a decent housing system that delivers for all our people and deliver an education system across the board and one where we have a conversation about how we will all live together. There has been a failure at Government level to do these pieces of work. I welcome the cross-party support for this event and I also welcome anyone going along to event in the 3Arena. It is on at 1 p.m. and tickets are still available on Ticketmaster and at the door on the day. We have a genuine opportunity to build something real and better on this island.

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