The Government would be lost without it.

Sentiment score: -0.32

The Government was forced

Sentiment score: -0.46

The Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Government is a government of chaos. It has done more damage to fuel prices in this country than the war in Iran. The intransigence of Micheál Martin and Simon Harris has actually brought this country to a standstill. Their stubbornness has seen petrol pumps run dry for the first time since the 1980s and I have never seen as much political stress on the streets since the right to water protests. The Government should not forget that its democratic authority comes from the citizens with whom it refused to converse last week. For too long, there has been an arrogance in the Government and it is pulling down the shutters between it and the people. The fact that it escalated the protest last week is unbelievable, with threats of physical force from gardaí and from the Army as well. It has kept blackening the names of those protestors since. It is incredible that we have had the Minister, Deputy Patrick O'Donovan, threaten press freedom in this country, probably the first time since Eoin O'Duffy himself. The Government is giving out about the protestors closing down businesses. These are the businesses that the Government was closing down that were protesting as well. There is another issue here. The Government talks about people not being able to make hospital appointments. There are a million people on hospital waiting lists at the moment. There are a dozen children on scoliosis lists across the country at the moment who cannot get operations. Some of them have lost their lives because of the decisions the Government has made.

Sentiment score: -0.16

Talking to citizens is not intimidation.

Sentiment score: 0.33

The Minister of State is digging a hole.

Sentiment score: 0.00