I thank the Labour Party for bringing forward this Private Member's motion. The vast majority of people recognise that we need the Government to take action to deal with the ever-growing cost-of-living crisis. The previous budget, which was introduced here last October, did absolutely nothing for ordinary people and workers. It was an example of Government spending great deals of money to deliver very little. That has been the experience of hundreds of thousands of people across the State. I listened with interest to the Minister of State's predecessor speaking about delivery and the measures that have been put in place. These measures came as a reaction to the crisis that brought people onto the streets and brought huge turmoil to the country for almost a week. Only then did Government wake up and say that it needed to do something. Even then, it only took half measures. I particularly think of the farmers and contractors. I know many people from my community who went out onto the streets to demand that something be done because the cost of living, especially the cost of energy, was putting so much pressure on so many people. While Government talks about targeted measures for the agricultural sector, claimants have to look at the amount of green diesel they used last year, put together all of the invoices and receipts for all of that, and put that in. Five months of documentation is needed. It is a complicated and convoluted way of doing it. Government should simply do what a sensible Government would do and look at bringing down the price at the pumps for everybody. Everybody uses fuel, including people going to work and families bringing children to school or who are dealing with a person with a disability and who have to take them to appointments. All of those people use fuel and nothing was done for them. Neither was anything done for people who depend on home heating oil. I know many people in my community who use home heating oil, even at this time of year. Older people and people whose houses are very cold need to use home heating oil, but Government did nothing for them. It is simply sitting back and saying that, since the sun is shining, everything is fine. It is not fine, however. People are recognising that the Government is quite prepared to leave them behind. As I have mentioned, there are also people with disabilities who are in difficult circumstances. That is who poverty kicks most, people who have extra payments to make and who face extra costs as a result of a child, elderly person or other family member having a disability. We have seen people talking about adult children with severe and profound disabilities and asking what is going to happen after their deaths. They are all looking at a future where they are going to go over a cliff edge. Government has no answers for them. The only answer Government had in the budget was to bring in tax breaks for the very wealthy and for certain sectors that were able to get the ear of Government. It goes back to the idea that if you are well connected in this country, you have made it, but if you do not, you are on your own. If we are to truly prosper and develop as a State and have a future for our children and our children's children, we need to put the resources in now. We need to invest in that future. That investment is clearly not happening. In the here and now, people are under serious pressure to pay the high costs of energy. That is why the Government needs to do something real and substantial. We need to look at the USC, which was introduced by Government as an emergency measure during the crash but which is still there and has not been taken away. We need to remove the USC for the vast majority of workers and put €500 back into their pockets. We need to look at the electricity credits that were there before. We need to reintroduce those energy credits. The Government says that would be given to millionaires and that universal payments are a bad idea. The taxation system should deal with that. Government refuses to look at that. Universal payments would benefit everyone in society but it is an easy way to get money into people's hands. However, a proper, effective and balanced taxation system could then deal with those on the wealthier end. The Government fails in this area every time.
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Through a new Government-----
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-----that the Deputy did not prop up.
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Little was done until then.
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