The warnings from us on the Opposition benches were ignored. In the context of the protests in Laois that I attended, there were decent hard-working people who work 60 or 70 hours a week present. Truckers told me that they are losing €6,000 per month. They can only do that for a couple of months. The fact is that they could not get a week's wages and were sinking below the waterline. While the measures proposed may bring some relief, a lot of people, including commuters, have been left out. There are 12,000 people in Laois who commute out of the county to work. Many of them do so by car out of necessity. There are taxi drivers, home helps and public health nurses. There are 700,000 people who rely on home heating oil. Many rural households in Laois rely on home heating oil; the majority outside of Portlaoise. These are low- and middle-income families who are been crucified. They do not get the fuel allowance. They are not entitled to it. They are left out. This is on top of a cost-of-living crisis. There are 320,000 households that are in arrears with their electricity bills and 180,000 households that are in arrears on their gas bills. If we look rents in Laois, there are cases of more than €2,000 month being sought in rent. One family has childcare costs of €1,400 a month. School transport fees are up and leaving certificate fees are back and being levied. This is a very tough situation, and further measures are needed for people. A budget was introduced last October. In the budget before that, which was just before the general election, helicopter money was dropped out of the sky on top of people, including on top of us and those who did not need it. Developers, landlords, hoteliers, McDonald's, Supermac's and Starbucks were all looked after. What happened with ordinary workers? The tax bands were frozen. What happened as a consequence? Joe and Mary Soap who are paying tax and are registered workers are paying more tax than they did last year. Not alone did they not get zero, they are in reverse. That is not good enough. What the Government did in 2024 was cynical. Last year, following the election, the Government totally turned its back on ordinary working people. That cannot continue.

Sentiment score: -0.05