Forty per cent of it was not.

Sentiment score: 0.00

Keep up, like.

Sentiment score: 0.36

I will give the Minister of State the truth. The truth is that people are at breaking point and this Government is standing idly by, completely failing them. After a disastrous, stingy budget, families have been hit with soaring fuel prices. Filling the car or heating the home is simply unaffordable. This is not just pressure any more. We are at a crisis point now. When people took to the streets to say enough was enough, what did this Government do? It ignored them, it refused to listen to them and it looked down its nose at them. The Government also ignored the people who could not protest like the carers and people with disabilities. The Government gave a disastrous response. The Government threatened the use of the people's own army against them to show just how out of touch it was. Home heating oil is at a 30-year high. Families are dreading their oil tanks running dry because they cannot even afford a partial fill. Petrol and diesel are heading for record highs. Meanwhile, workers, families, farmers, fishers and small businesses are being squeezed to the limit. We know that Trump and Netanyahu's illegal war has caused this crisis in fuel prices but the truth is this is the Government in Ireland and it has a choice. It could give a decent cut to fuel costs, such as 25 cent off petrol and diesel, it could scrap excise on home heating oil and it could deliver real relief, but it will not. Instead, it sits on a massive surplus while our people are struggling to get by. Confidence in this Government is gone. I could not believe the number of phone calls my office got today from the most surprising people who were fuming with the Government. This motion is about standing with those people who have been ignored and left behind, including those who could not protest like the carers and people with disabilities. We have given the Government the solution and it should not forget whose money this is. This is the people's money and their taxes. What we are missing here is leadership. All that people can see is an arrogant Government that is completely out of touch with its people. I want people to stop misleading the Dáil. The Comptroller and Auditor General stated that carbon tax was not ring-fenced the way people were led to believe, yet we have TDs coming into this Chamber who are still talking about it as if it is ring-fenced. Sinn Féin knows the carbon tax is a sop. It is just another revenue stream when the Government could take real action and commence the mass retrofitting of homes, ensuring supports are fair and equitable for people who cannot afford the expensive retrofits. However, when we have TDs in here misleading the Dáil and not even knowing that the carbon tax is not ring-fenced, what hope do we have?

Sentiment score: -0.19