I thank my colleagues in Sinn Féin for introducing this Bill. It is a very good Bill and works quite well. I was kind of shocked when I was reading it because I wondered should this not have been done a long time ago by previous Governments. I welcome it in that sense. The cliché every Member in this House is using is the phrase "heating or eating", but that is the truth. That is what is happening in Cork, Dublin, Donegal, Galway, Kilkenny - anywhere in the country. People are choosing between heating and eating. Recently, I visited a gentleman's house where they had one bar on the fire and were wrapped in blankets. He is afraid to turn on the heating in his house. In my constituency, there are many families leaving their kids in bed late on the Saturday and on the Sunday to ensure that they do not have to turn on the heating in the house because that is how difficult it is for them. I know the Minister of State is scrolling through his phone. I am sure he is very busy there, but the other thing is that-----

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Well, I would like the Minister of State to listen to me and pay attention, if that is okay.

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I am only asking for a small bit of respect-----

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-----and for the Minister of State to have a small bit of respect for the Leas-Cheann Comhairle as well.

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I thank the Minister of State. He will reply-----

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-----and he will have his opportunity to do so. Fine. The reality is that there are people in this country who have never been worse off. The Government goes out and says every day of the week that it is doing fantastic and asks people to give it a clap on the back because it has this deficit and that deficit. You cannot eat a deficit. There are people now choosing between turning on their heating and eating and the Government is not listening to them. More than 300,000 people in this country are in arrears with their ESB and gas bills. There is something wrong with that. There is something fundamentally wrong when people are in significant arrears in a First World country. The Government does not seem to be listening and does not seem to understand. I do not know if Government Members are knocking on the same doors as we are in Galway and Dublin but, at the doors we are knocking on, people are telling us straight out that they cannot take any more, that they are sick to death of it, that this is the final cut and that they cannot keep on going. I appeal to the Minister of State and to his Government. My colleague has just spoken about the renewable energy schemes that are available, which the Government continuously says are fantastic and marvellous. The truth is that you would want a ball of money under the bed to avail of these schemes. Some of these measures cost €16,000 but you only get €2,000 back. It is ridiculous. It does not make sense.

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