First I want to mention the Northside Home Care workers. This is a group of low-paid workers, earning just above the minimum wage, who do incredibly important care work. As the Government has failed to intervene and make sure they get paid the going rate the same as HSE care workers and failed to ensure there is a sectoral pay agreement for care workers, they are a group that is particularly vulnerable and disadvantaged during this cost-of-living crisis. I urge the Minister of State and his colleagues to back them and sort them out and ensure that every care worker gets paid the same, fair going HSE rate. What sort of Government cuts the income of disabled people by €1,400? That is what the Government did in this year’s budget. To put that in context, this country, the Government, has €39 billion sitting in cash yet it decided to take €1,400 off disabled people, putting people further into poverty. It means that, for example, people who were in receipt of some of those supports who were getting dialysis at home can no longer afford the electricity bills for their dialysis and are having to go back to hospital to get dialysis every day, causing massive disruption and having a huge impact on their health and well-being. What sort of Government does that? How can its members justify that to themselves? How can they make those decisions? How, when it has the resources available to invest in targeted energy credits to lift people out of fuel poverty and invest in solar energy, does it continue to sit on its hands and not act or use the resources at its disposal to really help the people who need help the most?

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