Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)

How did he break all these promises? He should answer the question. He made pledges to people over and over again. He is Tánaiste and he wants to be Taoiseach in a couple of years. He promises tax cuts every year to workers.

There are no tax cuts in this budget, as he pointed out. He said energy would be cheaper under Fine Gael. People have never paid more. The Government knew that and withdrew the energy credit. People now have to get €321 extra. The Tánaiste promised cuts in third level fees. People are paying €500 more than they paid last year. The Tánaiste promised no shocks in fuel prices. The Government is pushing up fuel prices with carbon taxes. The Tánaiste promised things over and over again and broke them one after another. The question is simple. Why should anybody take the Tánaiste seriously in relation to his latest promise that he will put money back into people's pockets? The ESRI and everybody else knows that what the Tánaiste has done is taken money out of their pockets and left them worse off in a €9.4 billion budget. How the hell could he do that? It is unbelievable in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, Simon.

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