Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)

The facts are staring the Tánaiste in the face. He talked about what the Government was doing in terms of energy. Did he not see what the commission released today? Does he know how many people are going into further debt or cannot pay their energy bills since January of this year? In four months, it has increased by 63,000 households. That is since this Government came into office. This means that, for the first time, we have 300,000 households that cannot pay their electricity bills and 175,000 that cannot pay to heat their homes with gas. The Tánaiste stands there as if he gets it. He does not.

There needs to be a cost-of-living package in this year's budget. The Government needs to introduce energy credits. What the Tánaiste has said here and the signal he has sent to those families who, under this and the previous Governments, cannot pay their bills is that they are on their own.

See this speech in context