Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We in Sinn Féin recognise that ordinary people are really struggling with the cost-of-living crisis and the failure of this Government to properly tackle it. We have the highest energy bills in Europe, including high gas bills. People are really struggling. That is why we believe the €250 the Government is offering does not go far enough. We believe that at least €450 needs to be given to workers and ordinary families to help protect them against this cost-of-living crisis. This Bill comes in today, the same day as we see the prices of petrol and diesel go up and solid fuel price increases that this Government brings in under the carbon tax. This Government is giving with one hand and taking with the other hand. At the end of the day, people have to get to work, school or college. In Cork at the moment, the bus service is in disarray. Fewer people are using the buses now because the Government did not fund Bus Éireann in Cork. At the same time, the Government is putting up the prices of diesel and petrol. This is a missed opportunity once again by this Government.

I also want to raise with the Minister of State the issue of low-usage customers. On Monday, at my clinic, a pensioner came in to tell me he did not get the last tranche of once-off payments because he was a low-usage customer. When I spoke to him and we checked it out, he needed to be on the vulnerable customers register, but nowhere has this Government told people that is what they need to do if they are vulnerable and are low-usage customers. The Government either wants people to get these energy credits or it does not. Once again we see the most vulnerable people being let down by this Government.

We are talking about what this Government is doing in the budget. May I make a few points to the Minister of State? As regards retrofitting, there are 11,000 social houses in the Cork City Council area. Does he know how many were retrofitted last year by the Government? Fifty-three houses. It would take 200 years to retrofit the houses in Cork city at that rate. The Minister of State sits there talking about climate change and the carbon tax. What about the people spending a fortune trying to heat their homes while the heat goes out through the windows, the doors, the attics and the walls because they cannot get retrofitting? I represent these communities, some of them with some of the worst, oldest and coldest houses in the State. What is in it for them? What is in it for the people of Cork? What is in it for all the people in social housing nationally?

The fact that 53 out of 11,000 houses in Cork were retrofitted last year is a shame on this Government. Government Members are only talking out of both sides of their mouths when it comes to the environment and climate change.

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