The least well-off and most vulnerable in our society have been absolutely hammered by the cost-of-living crisis that has been inflicted on them over the last number of years. It is very important to say that the cost-of-living crisis is not like the weather. It does not just happen. The other side of the cost-of-living crisis is profiteering by the people who increase the prices; it is as simple as that. The energy companies ratchet up the prices and have done so consistently over the last number of years. In fact, they have done it consistently since a previous Fianna Fáil Government deregulated the energy industry. We used to have a not-for-profit ESB energy supply in this country. Competition was supposed to lead to decreasing prices but the exact opposite happened. Prices have gone through the roof, crippling vulnerable and less well-off people. Energy company profits go through the roof and the cost-of-living misery is inflicted on the most vulnerable and the poorest in our society. That is the reality, and Government after Government continues to allow it to happen. I have heartbreaking letters, one, for example, from a young woman, Emma, in my constituency, who has a disability. She describes how the current budget will give her €660 extra a year but that is €1,000 less than she got last year. She is down €1,000 when energy prices, grocery prices and all the other costs of living have gone up. She will be poorer this year by a significant margin than she was last year. That is true of the most vulnerable and the people with disabilities. It is cruel and unfair but the Government has chosen to prioritise the profits of energy companies that are going to the roof. The Government allows them to do that, does nothing about it and does not redistribute it properly through taxes, so Emma and other people with disabilities get crucified. That is the truth of it. There is no justification for what has been done and the Government should seriously reconsider its set of priorities. I doubt that it will because it is always big business and the corporates that are profiting from the cost-of-living misery that are prioritised. A quick word on the technical amendment to the auto-enrolment scheme. I am not sure if this is in the public domain, and there are many things I would like to say about the scheme, but I will say one thing about a company called Tata Consultancy Services, which has a role in the administration of the auto-enrolment scheme. Lots of private companies, such as Irish Life Investment Managers, Amundi and BlackRock, will profit from this scheme, which should be run on a not-for-profit basis by the State. Tata Consultancy Services, which has won a ten-year contract from the Government, is a company that is deeply implicated with the Israeli military, the genocide and Project Nimbus, a surveillance project that assists the US military in the brutal occupation of Palestine and in all the genocidal horrors that have taken place over the last few years. Why on earth would a company guilty of and complicit in the genocidal horrors inflicted on Palestinians be given a ten-year contract by this Government? It is absolutely outrageous. We could have a far better pension system in this country and we could probably double the State pension if the Government just closed down the tax breaks going to the very wealthy and the companies involved in the pension industry whose profits, of course, are constantly going up. I do not have time to detail some of the facts around this, but the tax expenditures, for example, on the exemption of employers' contributions from employee benefit in kind is €956 million in one year. That is almost €1 billion, and I bet it is for the best paid workers. It is a tax scam and a tax loophole where some of those on the highest earnings and these companies get tax benefits. The money is there to give people decent pensions, address poverty and help the most vulnerable, but the profits of the rich and even those complicit in genocide seem to come first.

Sentiment score: -0.02