Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In order that the Minister of State will not be too upset by what he is listening to from this side of the House, I will give the Government credit for one thing. It gave payments to families. However, what it gave with one hand, it took back twofold with the other. The three parties in this malfunctioning Government have lost touch with the pressures people are under now. Things are bad enough as inflation has increased to an extent that for many, even those who get up early as the Government says, work no longer pays the bills.

Childcare providers who work for fees that were frozen at last year's rates in order to get core funding were outside the gates of Leinster House today. Many of those businesses are now under undue pressure because of the impact of inflation since last year and many will go out of business. Community workers in the areas of health and social care, who are the backbone of Tipperary, are due to go on strike next month because they have been left behind by the Government's failure to address the disparity in pay they experience. They are calling for the Government to take action on their behalf, not to make matters worse for them by hiking the cost of motor fuel any further.

What about the many mortgage holders who are paying vastly more each month alongside the increased cost of virtually everything? The Government thinks it is all right to put more pressure on them. The cost of food and energy is up, the number of electricity customers falling into arrears is up, yet the Government thinks these people can afford to pay even more to put fuel in their cars to drive to work, put in their day's work, drive home and, at the end of the week or month, see a vastly devalued pay cheque go into the account to pay even more at the pumps.

By the end of October, the Government will have increased the price of petrol by 10 cent per litre and the price of diesel by more than 8 cent per litre, pushing both closer to €2 per litre. As we face the onset of winter, people will need to put more money towards heating their homes, but the truth is that the Government is making it more and more difficult. Let me warn the Minister of State that it will have an effect. I remind him that whatever one-off payments the Government may include in the budget will be offset for many by the hikes it intends to impose on people throughout the month of October. The longer the Government is in office, the worse things are getting for those struggling with the cost of living. There is only one thing for it. It is time for change.

See this speech in context