Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The Minister still has not answered the question and he certainly has not addressed the Barnardos report. It is about the cost-of-living increases and their current and immediate impact. The report looks in particular at the past six months compared with the previous year and the impact these increases are having on children. It even states that they are "having an extremely detrimental or substantially negative impact on the health and well-being of the children in the families they support". The Minister is proud of the strategy, and fair play to him and all that jazz, but it does not address the report and does not address my question. It certainly does not address the deprivation and the hardship these families face. This could be dealt with immediately, and if the Minister's Government can boast about what a great job it has done on the economy and how many more billions it has in the coffers compared with what its expectations were, why does the Government not deal with this issue? It is crucial. Or are these children and families not worth it? Perhaps they are the ones who do not vote.

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