Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)

I want to begin by expressing my sympathies and those of my party to all the family and those who loved Eugene Nudie Hughes, the Monaghan football legend who crushed the hopes of many who played against him and gave joy to so many people who love our Gaelic games. He is being laid to rest today. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.

Tá gnáthdhaoine ag streachailt le billí móra agus iad ag feiceáil na tosaíochtaí atá ag an Rialtas agus ag cur ceiste orthu féin cá háit a bhfuil an cothrom na Féinne. Níl fadhb ar bith ag Fianna Fáil agus ag Fine Gael margadh deas a shocrú dóibh siúd ag barr an dréimire, ach diúltaíonn siad cuidiú le gnáth-theaghlaigh atá faoi bhrú agus atá ag streachailt.

The cost-of-living crisis is completely out of control. It is getting worse by the day. It is putting people under massive pressure. We have constant price hikes and ever-increasing bills. It means working households, even those with two incomes, are really struggling to keep up now. They are squeezed from all angles. It is price hike after price hike, bill after bill and people cannot catch their breath. They are living in stress at thought of the car or the washing machine breaking down - that wee one unforeseen expense tipping them over the edge - and you sit there and you do nothing. Last month, you delivered a budget of €9.4 billion that left people worse off. It was a budget with no cost-of-living package, where you broke your promise of tax breaks for workers. It was littered with cushy tax breaks for top-brass executives, developers and landlords. You left working people behind and you chose to look after those at the top at the expense of everyone else. Your priorities are right here to be seen in your finance Bill. While you could not find the money for cost-of-living supports, here is what you did find the money for - a tax cut of €105,000 for the highest-earning executives, 99 of whom already earn over €1 million, and 19 of whom earn over €3 million; a tax reduction of €320,000 but you only get that if your pension pot is already €2 million and more; and measures that allow developers to make millions of euro of profits building apartments and not having to pay a penny in tax on those profits. You are pouring money into the pockets of those who are already flush while ordinary workers have to watch every euro as they are hit by massive electricity bills, sky-high food prices, rip-off insurance costs and out-of-control rents. There is no end in sight for families out there.

You guys talk about a magic money tree when dismissing the calls to help households. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have a big fat magic money tree and its leaves are evergreen when it comes to looking after the big boys. You have no problem there and ordinary people see it. You took away their energy credits; you took away the double child benefit payment; you hiked up student fees despite the fact that you promised you would reduce them; you increased the cost of petrol, diesel and toll roads; you jacked up the local property tax; and you provided no extra help for renters but a nice increase for landlords. That is where your priorities lie. None of this is fair. It is not right and you need to change course. Targeted measures are needed, of course, but this cost-of-living crisis has got so out of control that measures that are targeted are no longer enough. We need far more than that. The truth is households which would have been fine just a couple of years ago and would have been getting by all right are now in desperate situations. They are drowning in bills and your Government simply does not acknowledge that. I ask you this: has the penny dropped? Did you hear from people when you were knocking on the doors during the presidential campaign - although we heard you did not do much of that - that they are really struggling, very frustrated and annoyed you have chosen to make them worse off in this budget while you protect the incomes of people at the very top who are already flush?

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