I am conscious of how deeply disappointed many people across this country are that this do-nothing Government is still in place. These are people struggling to get by. They are people who cannot afford to heat their homes, families, people with disabilities, children pushed into poverty, people who cannot afford to put fuel in their cars, the carers, the home help and other workers and small businesses struggling to survive. I assure them that Sinn Féin has their backs and will continue to fight on their behalf. The message I want to send to them this evening is not to lose hope. I come from a rural constituency. I know all too well that homes there are reliant on home heating oil. Once again, the Government has abandoned these people with its half measures. There are 750,000 of these households across the country. Over a month ago, Sinn Féin proposed the complete removal of carbon tax and excise duty on home heating oil. Instead, the Government reduced the National Oil Reserves Agency, NORA, levy by 2 cent per litre. That is even before we consider the hardship of people with defective concrete blocks who are watching their homes crumbling and looking at the cracks in the wall with the wind coming through them. I went to the fuel protests in Mayo and did not see any Government TDs there. Instead, the Minister for justice threatened to send the Defence Forces against our own people. These were ordinary, decent, working people and their families - farmers, hauliers, bus drivers, contractors, people with disabilities, carers, and home help workers. They were participating in peaceful protests, having been forced into taking drastic action to save their businesses. They did not want to be there. They do not want to be on these protests. What were they supposed to do to get the attention of the Government and have their pleas heard? They are deeply disappointed about people who are supposed to be independent voices in here who continue to prop up this Government. The groups the Government decided were worthy enough of a meeting last week are not the only people who suffered during the fuel crisis. People providing meals on wheels, community workers and the carers I spoke about covered huge geographical areas in Mayo. One of the workers told me that it felt as though community health workers had been largely overlooked and abandoned by this Government. People with disabilities were left high and dry in the last budget; they were left €1,400 worse off. Sinn Féin has been calling for a cost-of-disability payment to help the most vulnerable in society through the prolonged cost-of-living crisis. Now these people are faced with soaring fuel costs and no support from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. These carers cannot afford the fuel to put in their cars to go and see the patients who rely so deeply on them.

Sentiment score: -0.15