I agree with the points that were made. We need proper notice to be able to do our jobs.

The temporary reduction in excise duty will offer some overdue relief at the pumps, and the extension of the fuel allowance will give some respite to pensioners and people receiving social welfare, but it will not be enough. A figure of €152 misses the mark completely. What the Government is doing here is leaving hundreds of thousands of low-income workers who are facing astronomical increases, particularly in home heating oil, out of those targeted measures. The Government knows well that before Iran was attacked,…

Gach lá agus gach seachtain, feicimid Rialtas atá caillte ar bhealach, Rialtas nach bhfuil cúram gnáthdhaoine air. Ní gá go mbeadh sé ar an mbealach seo. Is féidir é a bheith difriúil. Rinne an Rialtas na roghanna míchearta. Tá na tosaíochtaí míchearta aige. Tá níos mó agus níos mó daoine á mbrú i dtreo na bochtaineachta aige. Tá níos mó agus níos mó daoine go hiomlán bréan den Rialtas seo. Tá athrú ag teastáil ó dhaoine. Ó thaobh na gcostas maireachtála, níl sé seo maith go leor. Ní mór dúinn cruthú níos fearr. Cr…

The Government's hands-off approach to the energy crisis is callous and cruel. For weeks now, the Tánaiste has failed to intervene as prices have spiralled. When the Social Democrats asked the Tánaiste to act, he refused. Instead of there being support for people, the Tánaiste has been missing in action. Individuals, families and businesses do not have the luxury of sitting back and monitoring the situation. For them, the impact has been immediate and unavoidable. Petrol and diesel prices are soaring, home-heating …

In December there were 320,000 households in arrears on their electricity bills. They need a targeted energy credit and the Tánaiste is saying he cannot do it because we are coming into summer. Is that for real? Then the Tánaiste is saying that he cannot predict the future. We are not asking him to predict the future. We are asking him to recognise the reality people are living in now and that things have been getting worse day after day, and he is delaying on this. Does the Tánaiste not recognise the difficulty in…

At least the Tánaiste knows that.

The Government has had plenty of time to put together what it is going to do for the cost-of-living energy crisis we face at the moment. Nothing has come forward. This week the Dáil should be discussing and passing emergency measures to help families and households under huge pressure with rising costs. There is a proposal from the Social Democrats for a €400 targeted energy credit that the Government should be adopting.

The war in the Middle East is in its sixth day and the price of oil and gas is continuing to skyrocket. People are now being charged absolutely extortionate prices for home heating oil. The Tánaiste saying he is going to monitor the situation and keep it under review is of absolutely no use to people facing big bills right now. The increases are absolutely outrageous. How are elderly people on pensions supposed to pay these extortionate costs? This includes vulnerable people and those with medical conditions. They …

Tá díomá mór orm le freagra an Tánaiste. Tá níos mó agus níos mó daoine nach féidir a gcuid billí a íoc. A total of 320,000 homes are in electricity arrears before these prices increased in the past few days. That is the scale of the problem we are facing in the country. What the Government is doing is not addressing that. With regard to the fines being issued and the CCPC, when was the last time it issued a significant fine to a large company? It has issued small fines to small companies and retailers around price…

Some 320,000 households are in arrears.

More than 3,000 people signed a petition calling for two new autism classes in Stapolin Educate Together National School. The Department of Education and Youth said it will sanction these classes in terms of staffing but will not provide any classrooms. There are no spare classrooms in the school. The school needs to be able to provide new classes and modular classrooms if the new autism classes are to open. Will two new additional classrooms be sanctioned? Will he speak to the Minister for Education and Youth abou…

Let us be very clear. It is not the Opposition that made the claim that the rental income of IRES REIT is going to go up by 25% as a result of the changes the Government has made. It was IRES REIT that made that claim. Does the Tánaiste accept that? His only defence seems to be that not every renter will be affected immediately. Does he not realise that a 25% increase in someone's rent, whether it is this year, next year or the year after, is completely unmanageable for the vast bulk of renters? How does the Govern…

Mick Byrne of the UCD school of social policy, whom the Tánaiste has been quoting, said that what the Government is doing is effectively removing rent regulation. The Tánaiste has been selectively quoting what he has been saying on this.

IRES REIT has been very clear in what it has said on this. It has said it believes its rents are currently about 20% below what it believes should be the market levels and it has said these changes will result in its rental income going up by about 25%. The Tánaiste has not addressed that. Simply saying that not every renter will face this straight away and, when they do face it, the rent can only go up by 2% every year for a few years does not address it. When it balloons by such an amount, how will people be able…

None of that justifies a 20% increase in rent.

It never said to increase rents by 25%. When did it say to do that?

What the Government is doing is putting the fear of God into people.

I thank my colleague, Deputy Rice, for all the work he has done on this motion. Is minic a thagann Airí isteach anseo agus léann siad ráiteas atá ullmhaithe, gan mórán ionchuir ón Aire féin. Ar chúis éigin, shíl mé go mbeadh an tAire Stáit, an Teachta O’Donnell, difriúil ach bhí mé mícheart. It is welcome that the Government is not opposing the motion. There are some very good ideas and suggestions in this motion that the Minister of State did not even address in his contribution. It is disappointing that he did no…

I pay tribute to all of the workers in local authorities and emergency services for everything they have done. On Friday last, the banks of the Mayne river burst causing absolute devastation for residents living in apartments on Marrsfield Avenue, Clongriffin. Residents were left without electricity and the lifts were put out of action, leaving a disabled person who uses a wheelchair effectively cut off from the rest of the community. The flooding of an underground car park left several cars completely destroyed. T…

I thank the Minister of State for that confirmation. It is very useful because there was no clarity on that. I appreciate that confirmation. These apartments were built right next to the Mayne river. Má chaithfimid súil siar, if we look back, there is a long history of flooding associated with that river. In June 1993, homes in Balgriffin, very close to the apartments that were just flooded, were badly flooded resulting in residents having to leave their home for two months. More than 30 years ago, in 1993, a resid…