Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)

Today the Government has made it very clear that nothing will change for working people who are absolutely put to the pin of their collar trying to make ends meet. Rents will continue to rise. Childcare will still be unaffordable and unattainable for many and the income of working people will fall in real terms because the Government's tax package does nothing for ordinary workers. The Government tells us that its budget is pro-investment. However, what it actually means is that it is cutting taxes for the elites, all the while failing to deliver the public investment that our economy desperately needs.

The reality is that none of this will surprise many of us because the first actions of this Government told us exactly who it sought to represent in this new Dáil term and that was themselves.

3 o’clock

The very first actions of this Government showed it was here to feather its own nest, and that it did. The very first actions it took and the very first Bill it brought forward in this Dáil was to increase the number of super junior Ministers and the wages of Ministers of State. Clearly the cost-of-living crisis was biting on the poor Ministers of State.

This time last year, we were preparing for a general election and, my God, what a different time that was. The Government had so many promises of all the things it would do, how many houses it would build and deliver - all empty promises and all leading to very little action. Fine Gael told us that it would be giving our children the best start in life. With one in five children in poverty and over 5,000 children in homelessness, it is an absolute disgrace not to deliver on that. The Fianna Fáil manifesto told us that it would help families cope with high prices. Instead, there is no cost-of-living package and, in fact, it is increasing their costs. Some 300,000 households are already in debt over electricity prices and the removal of energy supports will only increase that further.

Of course, this time last year we did not have the Lowry party - it was not even in existence - but I do not recall any of those Independents campaigning for increases in the carbon tax. In fact, Michael Lowry blamed the imposition of carbon tax on the insistence of the Green Party. The Government cannot blame the Green Party for that now. It is the Government that is implementing those increases now.

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