A Cheann Comhairle, Labour has no confidence in this Government. This Government has failed to tackle the cost-of-living crisis. Its members have shown a total disregard for the mounting pressures facing households and businesses across the country. The Labour Party warned in March when the first package of measures was announced that workers and families would continue to face impossible cost burdens. We warned then that Government needed to adopt robust policies on renewable energy, transport costs and remote working. The events of last week and the support from the public for the aims of the protests were not just about fuel prices but the Government has patently failed to recognise this. It has failed to recognise why so many people across the country are so angry with it. It is about energy bills but it is also about exorbitant rents and mortgage costs, house prices, childcare, education and healthcare costs, waiting lists and more. It is about a budget last October that did nothing for working people. It is about a housing crisis only getting worse as more and more young people choose to leave this country because they see no future here. It is about the thousands stuck on waiting lists for treatment, therapies, disability services and assessments of need. It is about a lack of special education supports for children with additional needs, and so much more. Last week, Labour recognised the deep distress and frustration felt by so many. Last Wednesday morning, we called on the Government to engage urgently with representative groups to ensure a resolution. We also called for the lifting of blockades to limit disruption to families, lives and businesses and ensure fuel reached those who needed it. We rejected the intimidatory tactics of some while absolutely respecting the right to peaceful protest of many. We watched all week in mounting dismay as Ministers of this Government responded by going on the airwaves and pouring petrol on the flames of anger. Instead of de-escalating, they inflamed the situation. The meeting the Government eventually convened on Friday afternoon could and should have been held sooner. Government could and should have acted more swiftly to address the real and genuine concerns of so many. The Government’s actions over the last week alone have shown it is incapable of handling crisis situations. This Government is worn out, tired out and zoned out from the reality of people’s lives. After too many years in office, this Government of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Lowry group and, it seems, half the Healy-Raes just did not get the message. In the week before Easter, the message should have been received loud and clear about the growing fuel and energy security crisis resulting from Trump and Netanyahu’s illegal warmongering in Iran and Lebanon. However, Government leaders were more focused then on talking about tax cuts for the rich. In the week when grocery inflation was reported at over 6%, the Tánaiste was on a media blitz for his new investment savings scheme. While 320,000 households are in arrears on their electricity bills, the Taoiseach was ruminating on inheritance tax cuts in the next budget. That is where the Government’s priority was - totally out of touch.

Sentiment score: -0.18

As protests began, there followed a week of dithering, confusion and mixed messages. Bombastic statements were issued by the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste on Wednesday night, but with no real follow through. On Thursday morning the justice Minister ratcheted up the tension by announcing that the assistance of the Defence Forces had been requested. In his rush to get on the airwaves, it appears he neglected to consult with the Minister for Defence. His intervention only inflamed the situation further. Not to be outdone, of course, the Minister for media announced yesterday that he wants Coimisiún na Meán to investigate media coverage of the protests. Goodbye Viktor Orbán, hello Patrick O’Donovan.

Sentiment score: -0.23

At best, one might hope this was a cynical attempt to distract from a disastrous week for the Government, but at worst, and in seriousness, it is a Minister resorting to sinister threats against the national broadcaster because it was doing its job of reporting fairly on events around the country. Yet as bad as last week was, the real crisis has yet to properly hit us. The International Energy Agency, IEA, has been warning for weeks that the world now faces the most severe energy crisis ever recorded, a supply shock that has yet to properly hit Ireland or Europe. So Taoiseach, where is our national fuel security plan? The crisis of last week shows a shocking unpreparedness if we end up facing a fuel rationing situation. The Labour Party has no confidence in this Government to bring forward the radical proposals that need to be introduced, as the IEA has advised, such as proposals that Labour has made for remote working, making public transport free and taking serious measures to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. Ireland needs real action now to invest in renewable energy, retrofitting and solar and wind installation in order to reduce energy costs, curb emissions and tackle the climate crisis. That is another reason why Labour has no confidence in this Administration, because by its deeds and actions it has shown itself to be the most conservative and ideologically right-wing Government in a generation.

Sentiment score: -0.28

It has consistently rowed back on climate action commitments. It has arrogantly dismissed and consistently voted down constructive proposals from Labour and others in opposition on taking action on housing, workers’ rights and on the cost of living. The Government stopped sick pay increases and rowed back on a living wage. It voted down our Labour Party Bill on the right to remote working. It sneered at calls for stronger State action on housing or the development of a State construction company. The budget last October provided no relief for working people. It failed to index income taxes, removed vital once-off supports and at the same time committed millions of euro to untargeted VAT cuts for construction and hospitality - big builders and burger barons. The value of those VAT cuts will be washed away in the inflation likely to hit us over the next six months. The price of construction of a house is already reported to have increased by between €25,000 and €30,000. The VAT cut on hospitality was never going to be passed on anyway and would have been better spent on targeted supports for those now in fuel and energy poverty. This Government cannot be trusted to manage the public finances. There is a €600 million deficit already forecast for the Department of education. The Government managed to spend nearly a billion euro on fuel supports without any new measures that will tackle energy poverty or address the near €200 million of arrears on household gas and electricity bills. As our Labour Party finance spokesperson, Ged Nash, has said, the measures the Government announced on Sunday are designed to placate sectoral interests, effectively abandoning PAYE workers - low and middle-income earners who have no option other than to pay taxes but whose pay packets that are under increasing pressure in this cost-of-living crisis. There is pressure from rising energy bills but also from skyrocketing grocery prices as we face food insecurity, and from escalating housing costs. We need substantive engagement from Government at the upcoming LEEF talks, substantive engagement with the trade unions, and Labour will strongly support the trade union movement in seeking pay rises for hard-pressed workers and working families. We all know who caused outbreak of this most recent fuel crisis, yet this Government has failed to condemn the illegal war launched by Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu. We know that our economy, our energy security and our society are being threatened because of the actions of the US and Israel. The Government must now call in the US ambassador, challenge them on their illegal warmongering, their threats made just a week ago to wipe out a civilisation and their ongoing blockade of ships. We must recognise the United States is not acting as a friend any more and the fuel protests result from the US and Israel's war on Iran. The Government must press the EU to sanction Israel as it seeks to conquer southern Lebanon. We are watching in horror as Israel erases villages from the map, colonises the West Bank and continues to destroy Gaza and entrench its system of apartheid. When will the EU act to end the trade agreement with Israel? When will the Government act to pass the occupied territories Bill it committed to in the general election but walked away from once office was secured? Now is the time, and the Taoiseach would have Opposition support to send America and Israel a real message on this and pass the occupied territories Bill in full to cover trade in goods and services, and to work with Spain and other progressives across the EU to force the EU to suspend the Israel trade agreement. These are real things that could be done but we know the Taoiseach will not do them because his conservative Government lacks the courage to do so. Taoiseach, you have failed PAYE workers, struggling households and hard-pressed families. We in the Labour Party have no confidence in you.

Sentiment score: -0.06