Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Today the Cabinet is meeting to discuss what will happen in the inflationary situation in which we find ourselves as a country. This is not just an Irish problem; it is an international problem. I want to see the squeezed middle as well as the most vulnerable in society benefit.

I was talking yesterday to a person who has a very large mortgage and who told me that childcare is extremely expensive, that the cost of filling the car with diesel to go to work has increased by a third and that they find it very difficult to make ends meet. I welcome the electricity bonus or rebate that is due and hope that it is significantly increased, but we need to look at doing something in the areas of childcare, transport and fuel.

I also call on the financial institutions to be flexible with people, to give them breaks in their mortgages if they need them and to facilitate them with interest-only repayments for a period. We all hope that what is happening at the moment with our economy and the inflationary situation in which we find ourselves is temporary. The Government certainly will do its bit, but no matter what it does, I have no doubt but that it will not be enough and will not be welcomed. All other stakeholders, including utility providers and financial institutions, need to step up to the plate as well.

I have raised in this House before the issue of the cost of public transport in rural Ireland versus the cost of public transport in urban Ireland. It is an awful lot cheaper to get the train from Maynooth to Dublin than it is to get the train from Ennis to Galway or from Ennis to Limerick. There needs to be a fundamental rethink of the cost of public transport. It should be equal throughout the country. The people living in Ennis who commute to work in Limerick or Galway should have equal access and should not pay any more than the people in Maynooth who work in Dublin. I would like a debate on the cost of public transport at some stage because I believe that the intentions are good. We see what is happening with greenways, investment in public transport and upgrading of the train and bus fleets. The improvements that have been made to the Bus Éireann timetables in recent years have been fantastic, but there is an inequality there and it needs to be addressed.

I agree with Senator Cassells about the sports capital grants. We need a fundamental debate on the methodology used in respect of the grants. For every club that gets a sports capital grant, there should be an audit of its accessibility for people with disabilities in using its services. If the State is funding projects and programmes in clubs around the country, they should be accessible to everybody.