We voted no confidence in the Government today because from our perspective, from what we see and from what our constituents tell us, people are struggling and suffering. They are being devastated by a cost-of-living crisis. What we are being told about the reality of people's lives is that they cannot cover the basics. There are people in this country right now who are choosing whether or not to turn on the heating. I was in Artane in my constituency last week, talking to people at the doors. Elderly people told me they were looking at when they turned the heat on because they did not have enough money and they could not cover it. This is the reality. There are elderly people and disabled people, and I know the Tánaiste knows this. There are also young people who are trying to save for a deposit to buy a home. The cost of living is eroding their dreams even further. We have 320,000 people in arrears. We have families who are deciding whether they can afford to go to the GP this week. I call out the Government's failure to achieve its commitments on free GP care for children. It would be a measure that would help families. This is not all about short-term measures. There are fundamental changes needed in how we deliver public services and their affordability in transport and in childcare. These are all eating into people's weekly wages and their income. We have a fundamental problem in this country. Our cost of living is 34% higher than the EU average. There are many reasons for this and one of them, which the Government has acknowledged, is the price gouging and profit gouging that is going on. I call it cute hoor capitalism in Ireland. It goes on and we know it. People try to get as much as they can and they try to make as much as they can, and people feel it. They ask why prices are increasing so much. We need action from the Government to stabilise prices, and when people are price gouging, they should be fined properly. This is not happening enough because there is a gap between the amount by which wholesale gas, wholesale electricity and wholesale food costs are going up and what people are actually being forced to pay. The gas prices people are being charged have increased 100% since 2021. What we also need to talk about, and what was not mentioned enough at all last week, is inequality - the gap in respect of those children who are in poverty in this country. We have one in five children living in poverty. In some form, they are affected by poverty. We have, shamefully, almost 5,500 children living in homelessness. They are in a form of poverty. People cannot afford the rent. They cannot afford the house prices. The cost-of-living crisis is hitting them as well. We have an economy that is deeply unequal. I spoke before about how, in a way, we have two Irelands. We actually have many Irelands but there is a deep division between those who can afford this high-cost economy and those who cannot and who are really struggling. This Government is not doing enough for them and needs to structurally change our economy so people can afford to live in this country.

Sentiment score: -0.08