The Taoiseach has nowhere to hide today because the consequences of his actions are very clear. The Fine Gael-Fianna Fáil rent hike Bill has meant the highest rent hikes on record and evictions at the highest levels since the Famine. The Government has chosen deliberately to side with corporate landlords and vulture funds. Those are the Taoiseach's choices. It takes a very particular type of slíbhín to stand-----

-----in this House and suggest that it is okay for families to face a rent bill of €30,000 a year in Dublin and €27,000 in Galway.

It is a very special kind of slíbhín politics from Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. Shame on you.

A slíbhín is a slíbhín.

A rose by any other name and a slíbhín by any other name. Shame on you, Taoiseach.

That is your record, Taoiseach. Do not dare lecture the rest of us on the Opposition benches.

Fáilte, Austin. Deputy Carthy is telling me that Austin is a Monaghan man. The Ceann Comhairle missed the most important element of the story. Comhghairdeas agus fáilte. Three years on from the financial scandals that rocked RTÉ, the State broadcaster is once again embroiled in controversy. The latest debacle centres on RTÉ revising the list of its top ten highest earning presenters to include Mr. Derek Mooney. It transpires that Mr. Mooney should have been on the list for the last five years, but his salary of alm…

Unfortunately, the Taoiseach is very touchy about the idea that he might be expected to do his job and do it competently. A key function of the Government is to ensure that State agencies, including RTÉ, are accountable and that an agency such as RTÉ, which has been bailed out to the tune of almost three quarters of a billion euro, behaves in a manner that is transparent and appropriate, so we do not see a rerun of the scandals that rocked RTÉ a short time ago. All of us were led to believe that the bargain with RT…

-----that is on the Taoiseach and the "I don't know what's going on" Minister, Deputy Patrick Donovan-----

-----who apparently shrugged his shoulders and did a Manuel on it. He knows nothing apparently. He needs to start finding out.

It sounds like you want to run RTÉ, not Matt Carthy.

Our ambulance workers should not have to strike to be heard by the Taoiseach. They should not have to stand on a picket line to fight for fair pay, recognition and basic respect, but that is what they were forced to do yesterday. They were left with no other option because the Government has failed to deliver improved pay for the incredible work, vital skills and life-saving expertise they bring to work every single day. Paramedics were asked to step up and to take on advanced training to modernise the ambulance se…

Exactly.

Yes, it is.

The Taoiseach's response reflects his lack of urgency on this question. He is quite happy to simply take a laissez-faire approach and hope that others will sort this out. He knows that for the past six years, throughout this process of modernisation, ambulance workers have been left understaffed to the point that they have very deep safety concerns. Those concerns are well-grounded. He has left them overworked. So many of them are burned out that there is now an issue around recruitment and retention in that very s…

I urge the Taoiseach again to stop being a spectator-----

----- to intervene and assist in a resolution on this matter.

Jesus, do not. They are completely understaffed.

So there is not a problem.

The October budget, which was worth €9.4 billion, left disabled people €1,400 worse off in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis. For months, disabled people and their advocates have told their stories of choices between heating and eating. They have appealed to the Government again and again to deliver a cost-of-disability payment immediately, but it has ignored them. The Government’s consultation process is a distraction. It has stated that it needs to figure out what a cost-of-disability payment should be. Howev…