I thank my colleague, an Teachta Pa Daly, for bringing forward this motion. It is timely. In the middle of a cost-of-living crisis the least we should be able to expect from any decent Government is that it would not make things worse. Yet, somehow, at every single turn, it manages again to twist the pressure that is on hard-working, hard-pressed people. My constituents living in north County Dublin, in places like Rush, Lusk, Skerries and Balbriggan, towns that have expanding populations, are experiencing worsening levels of public transport. The people in the towns and villages I represent cannot find work locally due to decades of underinvestment by successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments. The vast majority of workers I represent have to leave Dublin Fingal West for work. The buses and trains are overcrowded. The buses often disappear. The Minister of State will have heard me talk about ghost buses. Unreliable service forces people into their cars. They now have to get into their cars five days a week because, again, the Government has done nothing to support remote work or, indeed, remote workers. In the space of a couple of months, my constituents, who have no choice but to drive, are going to see the cost of their insurance, the cost of filling their car and the cost of travelling on the toll roads go up and, all the while, the insurance companies are making a healthy and handsome profit. The toll operators are doing quite nicely, thank you; there is no cost-of-living crisis there. It is the people I represent in north County Dublin who have been forced into their cars, having been left with absolutely no choice, who will have to foot the bill for this do-nothing, out-of-touch Government, which refuses to stand up for them and thinks it can endlessly pile charges on top of them. The Minister of State has left them with no choice. I urge him to support this motion and end the rip-off.

Sentiment score: -0.04