Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)

I start by thanking my colleague an Teachta Pa Daly for this motion and for all of his work on this issue. That we continue to put forward constructive solutions to the crisis caused by this Government is a great credit to my colleagues.

As the dark evenings draw in and it starts to get colder, it is important that we turn our attention to the reality of what is happening in homes across the State. For this Government, the cost-of-living crisis is only something it trots out and acknowledges in the run up to an election. With no election on the horizon, we see fuel taxes going up, college fees going up and energy prices increasing. In the run up to the election, energy credits were very important. Today, the election is behind us but the cost-of-living crisis is not, yet the Government tells us there will be no cost-of-living package. A total of 300,000 households are in arrears with their electricity bills while 175,000 are in arrears with their gas bills. Believe me, they have been to the community welfare officer and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul but still they are facing into a very cold winter and they are already in arrears. They have built up those arrears when the sun was shining. They are facing into winter in arrears.

I see it every day in north County Dublin in my office in Balbriggan and in my clinics. People cannot understand why, on the one hand, the Government is telling them they have never had it so good - we heard that this afternoon - and, in the same breath, it is telling them that it will not help them to stay warm this winter. People are not stupid. They know they are paying what are among the highest energy prices in Europe. They see and know that the Government can help. They see, as do I, older people who are affected. I am thinking in particular of a man who, when it is cold, sits in the library in Balbriggan. I see him in the window and it breaks my heart. I know from talking to him that he is mortified at the indignity of not being able to heat his own home. To be indifferent to that and to turn its face against that man in the library trying to stay warm is a fairly damning indictment of this Government. I will tell him the next time I see him that the Minister is going to write a letter to the energy companies. I am sure he will be very heartened.

See this speech in context