Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. I find it interesting to talk of narratives. Let us talk about the Fine Gael narrative. We hear Ministers and spokespeople talking about GDP, the fastest growing economy in the European Union and full employment, but the reality is that one might as well be the emperor strutting around naked because the emperor has no clothes. We are not living in an economy; we are living in a society, and people have been struggling for years under this Fine Gael Government. The costs of housing and childcare are not just new realities for people because they have long been a millstone around families' necks, that is, if they can even get a house or childcare place. The pandemic and war in Ukraine have of course exacerbated the problem and caused energy and food prices to skyrocket. Families are now choosing between heating and eating, but they were doing that a couple of years ago. I did a survey and the respondents told me they were going down lanes to pick up sticks off the road and sleeping in the one room. Elderly people were going to bed during the day to keep warm. Therefore, it is not just down to the pandemic or the war in Ukraine. Nobody is saying the Government has a magic wand or can help every single household but it could do an awful lot more.

The energy poverty strategy lapsed in 2019. Since I came into this House, I have repeatedly asked the Minister where the new energy poverty strategy is and about prioritising people who are struggling to heat their homes. The truth is that energy poverty is not a priority for the Government. We do not have the energy poverty strategy, nor do we have the data on households to determine how many are in energy poverty and what their energy expenditure is. We have been asking for these data for two years but still do not have them. The retrofitting scheme cannot even be assessed for its social impact because we do not have the data. Without them, the retrofitting programme, as it stands, is a wealth transfer.

The cost-of-living crisis we are experiencing indicates how catastrophic life has been for people after ten years of Fine Gael in government. The list of failures, including in respect of housing, healthcare, childcare and the cost of energy, goes on and on. It is interesting to see that, even now, it has got to the point where even the President feels he needs to say something. He is right. What he said yesterday was profound: a republic is about meeting its people's needs. We have a housing disaster. It has long since stopped being a crisis; it is a disaster.

Budget 2021 did nothing for renters. Not a single measure was put in place for renters to address one of the biggest crises in the country. Sinn Féin would put one month's rent back in the pockets of hard-pressed renters and ensure no rent increases for three years. Fine Gael says it cannot be done. It will not even test it in the courts. It would rather see people made homeless.

For those lucky enough to find a place for their child, childcare is a second mortgage. Again, we were told to bring forward proposals. Sinn Féin has fully costed proposals that would immediately reduce the cost of childcare for hard-pressed families. We see childcare as an essential public service.

We have also repeatedly called for an increase in the working-age social welfare rates. Sinn Féin called for a living wage long before any other parties were talking about it. It also called for the establishment of a discretionary fund of €15 million to assist households with utility debts, which the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and Social Justice Ireland have also been calling for. Workers and families can take no more. An increasing number of people are falling through the cracks. It is long beyond the point where we need the mini-budget. We need a comprehensive package of measures. People are desperate. Others have said that we are hearing tonight from Fine Gael that the people will just have to wait it out until October. Even then, the measures in the budget will not come into effect until the new year. Rather than bringing forward a mini-budget with targeted measures and a comprehensive package to help people who are struggling today, the Tánaiste is kite-flying income-tax breaks. Tonight, Fine Gael Senators are doing the same. We are hearing them use the same old tired dog-whistle tropes about the people who get up early in the morning. The full cost of the measure proposed is €1.7 billion, it has been said. That exceeds the Government's planned budget package of €1.5 billion for all new measures, leaving no funding available for hospital waiting lists, childcare, social welfare increases, further support regarding fuel prices, school class sizes, public transport measures and further education measures, or anything else. Is that the Fine Gael policy? Is the policy a grave threat to public services, with no more public services and just a tax break for some workers? That is it. As my colleague Senator Gavan has said, that is Thatcherism 101.

Every single public service in this country is creaking at the seams. The war in Ukraine has brought this into clear focus because we now have refugees sleeping on the floors of hotels. We do not have hotel rooms for tourists because we are housing our homeless and refugees in hotel rooms. Children are living in pain and older people are cold and going hungry. I urge my Fine Gael colleagues to rethink their approach. All they are offering is the equivalent of a price of coffee to some workers. Instead, they could be investing in genuine public services and targeted cost-of-living measures for those who are struggling the most.