Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

The North is in the middle of an horrendous economic crisis at the moment. Poverty levels are increasing, at 300,000 people. Hospital waiting lists are increasing, at nearly 450,000 people, and the number of people homeless, without a house, is increasing at 45,000 people. The collateral damage to families by the undemocratic Democratic Unionist Party's boycott of Stormont is absolutely horrendous. In the middle of this, MLAs who are not doing their job are taking their wages, which has cost £4 million so far since the Stormont election. The only political actions they have taken is to increase the council rates on people. Rates have gone up by as much as 8%. Sinn Féin, the DUP, Alliance and the UUP are hiking rates on families who are hardly able to survive at the moment.

The real frustration is that on top of this, the British Government is introducing an austerity budget imposing cuts of up to 20% on families at the moment. There will be deaths as a result of this British austerity budget. There will be economic misery. It will shred the very fabric of families and communities across the North of Ireland. It has been done seemingly to punish the DUP but it will have the effect of punishing everybody who lives in the North of Ireland. In the Taoiseach's discussions with Rishi Sunak and through the shared island project, what is the Government doing to stop the British punishing the people of the North of Ireland at this time?

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