Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The thing that strikes me about this debate is that the people who are most affected by this are among those the Government styles itself as being for. The Government styles itself as being for getting up early in the morning, aspiration and home ownership. This is how Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael style themselves. They seek to speak to the people who are affected by this, yet these are the people who are being hit from every direction. They are facing enormous childcare bills of €1,500, €1,800 or maybe even €2,000 per month, they make voluntary contributions and they have mortgages such as those described.

The Minister and I are from the same constituency and I am sure we have spoken to some of the same people who have been affected by increased mortgage repayments. I could give examples. I was looking back over emails from a woman in our constituency who has had increases of €350 in her repayments through Pepper. We will take a hypothetical example of a wife who is working in Stryker and a husband who is working in Cork City Council. Those are two good, decent, full-time, middle-income jobs. The couple is paying €1,500 per month for childcare. They have all the costs and all the stress of life. Every month, they go through the bills and figure everything out but they reach a tipping point when they are told their mortgage repayment is increasing by €300 or €350 per month. If the Exchequer saw increased costs of that scale, this place would in chaos. No family is prepared for such an increase in costs and it puts people to the pins of their collars.

I hope the Minister is listening. Clearly, the action taken thus far has not been anywhere near good enough. It has to be focused as it cannot catch everything. Trying to prioritise everything means prioritising nothing. It has to happen for those families. These are the same people who are saying they are doing everything right. They are working full-time and trying to do the best they can for themselves and their families. They have improved their education, skills and training, yet they cannot catch a break. It is vital that the Minister, in the budget, implements the proposals that have been outlined, or something like them, and gives those families a break.

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