This motion is timely because, with the massive increases for people running their homes and businesses, people who are working have never been at more of a disadvantage because of the high cost of going to work, childcare and fuel. What we need is a more targeted approach by the Government. It will never be more important or timely than in the upcoming budget to make sure that the supports that will be made available for energy and the general cost of living are targeted to help people who are really struggling. From dealing with people every day, it seems to me that it mostly affects those who are working. Everybody can be struggling, but for the people who are going to work every day, who have the high cost of loans on cars and mortgage or rent payments, everything is piling up on top of them. It is the same for businesses. In County Kerry alone, the number of businesses that are closing weekly is frightening. These businesses are owned by people who have been in business for many years, who are very much valued in our communities and who create local employment, but they are closing their doors. It can be small shops, public houses or gift stores. These are people who were able to manage before, who are involved in different types of personal services, like hairdressers. We have to do something to arrest it. I want to focus on one issue in particular, the high cost of energy. Why is it costing us so much to provide electricity to people's homes? When we look at the profits being made by the likes of the ESB, we have to look at what we are doing. That is why I welcome, for example, what is being done regarding Shannon LNG. We should be doing more about providing our own energy, and doing more in a forward-thinking way to try to ensure that these types of measures will help us to reduce the cost of energy. When energy costs are higher, and we are all well aware of the statistics on exactly how much fuel and energy have gone up in price, we have to be forward thinking about how we are going to deal with that in the coming years. The measures we take, such as those that were voted on in the House last night to support an LNG facility in this country, are very important. I believe we need to have more debates about this matter in the coming weeks in a pre-budget type of way. We have all met with the different groups and sectors that have come here over the last weeks and months to make pre-budget submissions. However, at the end of the day, the people that we always have to consider are people on low incomes, people who are working and people who are struggling. We have to try to help them in every way we can through targeted approaches. We have to look at the bigger picture, like the high cost of fuel and the tax take on fuel. The figures are mind-boggling. Again, why is fuel more expensive here than in any other part of Europe or the world?

Sentiment score: 0.17