Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Is the election coming? All you have to do is look at the Government's social media to find people saying the handouts have started to try to fool the people of Ireland. After the mistruth when the Government said it was going to go the full term, it will be interesting how the Taoiseach handles this when he comes back after he told everyone in the country the Government was going to go the full term. Now it looks like the Government is handing out sweets.

I welcome any funds that come back to the people of Ireland because the Government has been taking money off them hand over fist, but one-off payments do not represent a pay-off for the people. We want long-term solutions. To produce a kilowatt of electricity costs €50 and the Government has tapped that they can charge up to €120 per kilowatt hour. That is a problem. I have listened to people going into the shops and coming out with one bag of groceries where previously they had two so a once-off payment is not going to fix this. The people of Ireland know this because for the past five years, they have seen excessive inflation. All the Government is doing is giving them a small token of the amount of money it has taken off them. That is what they are getting - a token at election time to buy the Government votes. Every person in Ireland needs to understand this.

The Government increased carbon tax. This was backed by Sinn Féin when it voted for the carbon tax. The once-off payment will not help with this either because the Government is taking it off them as well. People in Ireland need to understand that the Government giving them a once-off payment when they are vulnerable means that it is treating them with the height of disrespect because it has no long-term plan. It has been here five years, has managed to drive inflation through the roof and has brought hardship to this country. The people of Ireland need to realise this at election time.

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