I thank the Labour Party for the motion and for suggesting that we should have a mini-budget to address the cost-of-living crisis. We agree with quite a number of the measures and some were in our alternative budget. It is a fact that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. While a cost-of-living crisis is going on for working people in this country, where half a million people either are either in gas or electricity arrears and are crushed by the USC, carbon taxes, energy price hikes and food price hikes, the rich are getting richer. The year before last, there were nine billionaires in Ireland. Now there are 11. The wealth of those billionaires went up by €13 billion last year. Just 11 people's wealth went up by €13 billion. Some 1,400 people in Ireland have more than €47 million each while 20,000 people in this country have more than €4.7 million each. If we adopted a wealth tax, as Oxfam has proposed, on just that group of 20,000 people, it would raise €9 billion. Let us imagine what we could do with €9 billion for the cost-of-living breaks that working people need. There is a similar picture on profits. Profits are up 300% in the past ten years. In 2014, total profits before tax amounted to €95 billion. In 2023, they reached €318 billion. Here is the real kicker. The total earnings of every one of the 3.3 million workers in this country comes to €130 billion. That is all the wages together. How much tax do those 3.3 million workers pay on that income? Some €32 billion. What are the total profits of the 170,000 businesses in this country? Some €318 billion. It is more than twice than what all the workers earn between them. How much tax do they pay? Some €23 billion. The rich earn far more and pay far less in tax. Workers earn less and pay more between USC, excessive electricity and energy costs, carbon taxes, you name it. Profits go up for the super rich, they pay less tax and we get more billionaires, while workers are screwed to the wall with the cost of living. How do these things happen? I will give an example - rezonings. The Government is rezoning land all over the place. The value of the rezoned land is going up, from about €160,000 per hectare when it is zoned for agricultural use to €1.6 million when per hectare after it is rezoned. Actually, when the land is sold on the market we are probably talking about more like €16 million. So, overnight, somebody who owns that land and has done absolutely nothing is made a multimillionaire by the rezonings that are happening all over Dublin at the moment, courtesy of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Is that a victimless crime? No. That extra money that has gone into their pockets - millions of euro because of the votes of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and, in some cases, Green Party councillors and others - goes onto the prices of houses. That is why the prices of houses and rents are so high. That is where they get their money from. It does not come out of the sky. It comes out of the price or the rent you pay. That is how people get rich overnight. It is not magic. It is a transfer of wealth from working people who cannot afford a house or cannot afford the rents into the pockets of rich people who have done nothing except own a piece of land that has been rezoned. This week, I heard of the case of a clerical officer working in the Civil Service, who is earning €32,000 and has four children. He should be below the social housing income threshold limit but he gets family income supplement as his income is so low. If he gets this year's increment, due this summer, he will be thrown off the housing list and will not even be eligible for HAP. He is on €32,000 and has four kids. The workers get screwed; the rich get richer. That is what is happening in this country.

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