I canvass regularly in my constituency, Dublin South-Central, and I hold clinics on a weekly basis. I can tell the Minister that people are far from all right in Dublin South-Central. When we set aside the issues with housing and also that of appropriate school places – I am the education spokesperson – we see that the next biggest issue in my constituency is affordability. When it comes to the energy crisis and what is going on in people's homes, I note that renewables, solar and all these things are absolutely beyond the budget of many of the people I speak to regularly. People are telling me that they cannot afford their groceries or get an appointment with the doctor. They also tell me that they cannot get a hospital appointment or are left on a waiting list for a very long time. Children and young people with mental health difficulties cannot get an opportunity to meet staff from child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS. There are no appropriate school places for children and people cannot afford rent. All of this is creating a lot of crisis and a lot of difficulty for people. The Social Democrats are not just a party that points out what is wrong. We also give solutions. We have done this regularly since I joined Dáil Éireann. Indeed, the parliamentary party did this before I became a member of it. I am not taking all the credit. Today, we are bringing forward another motion that outlines our proposal for how the people of Ireland can be supported with regard to the energy crisis we are in. We need a timely conversation about the fact that we really need to move from fossil fuels to renewables. People cannot afford to do so, so we need to do what we can to make sure every household is able to access renewables. My colleague Deputy Jennifer Whitmore has introduced the Solar for All plan, and that plan includes a doubling of the grant for solar installation to €3,600 and the inclusion of solar panels in the warmer homes scheme. That will yield an average benefit of €450 for a family. That is what it will save. It is a practical plan and something that we need to implement in order to reach our environmental targets and help people throughout the country with energy costs. What we see is that only people with additional incomes are able to afford solar panels. Solar panels are so easy to install and they give immediate results, so we need to harness that. We are an island. If the Minister has ever gone to the west of Ireland, as I am sure he has, he will know that if you stand on a cliff edge there, you will nearly be blown over. I am really at a loss as to why we do not use that wind power to power our schools, homes, businesses and hospitals. Every day, I am contacted by families worried about costs. As education spokesperson, I really do have to say that although we have primary and secondary school education systems that are supposed to be free, people are worried about the increased cost of school transport. I am absolutely delighted to see that there are free books at primary and secondary levels, but people are now having to fork out for tablets that cost up to €700. We had the college fees debacle in September and October, but I will not go back into that today. This motion is very practical. We have solutions, and I ask the Minister to listen to us.

Sentiment score: 0.06