I thank the Minister for being here this morning. I am very proud to support this motion. It embodies what the Social Democrats stand for - targeted supports which support the people in society who most need them at this point of crisis right now, and a long-term vision for how we can work our way out of these crises and inoculate ourselves as a State against the next one to come along. While I appreciate the Minister acknowledging our calm and civilised manner in the delivery of this motion, I can tell him that we are as enraged as the constituents we represent at this Government's continued failure to deal with the cost-of-living crisis that is reaching is every single life in this country. I am going to read to the Minister something from my inbox this week. Many, including myself, are living from one wage to the next with little financial security. As a single mother, I do not qualify for support such as the fuel allowance or back to school schemes due to strict means testing criteria that do not reflect the true cost of living after tax. People in my position are working hard yet still struggling daily to afford basic necessities such as food, electricity and heating. We feel overlooked and forgotten despite our efforts to contribute positively to society. The Minister in his statement spoke about a task force for the renewables space, which is welcome, of course, but people are sick of hearing about task forces, strategies and reports. They want meaningful change in their lives and it is not coming. Another thing that was lacking in the Minister’s statement was mention of energy poverty. That was something the Department spoke about a number of years ago but all we hear now is energy affordability. The Minister is denying the lived reality of many people in society who simply cannot pay for heating anymore - the 300,000 households which are in arrears. Those people are not being helped by the many, many statistics the Minister quoted. Yesterday, I listened to the contributions from the Minister’s benches on both the motion of confidence and the financial resolutions. In particular, I listened to the Minister, Deputy Calleary, who spoke about the real harsh realities that we as a State and we as a globe facing. Despite the constant narrative from this Government that we do not understand, we are well aware there is no magic money tree. It is not about what we are spending as a State that we are so enraged at but how we are spending it. The Government simply relies on market solutions. Where it spends money is easing it for private sector contributions which it expects will help citizens but which is failing again and again to do so.

Sentiment score: -0.03