I do not think it is a radical statement to say that the duty of any government is to protect its most vulnerable citizens from severe shocks to the greatest extent possible. I genuinely do not believe in this case that that is what happened. Unsustainably high energy and fuel prices in the State have made a pre-existing cost-of-living crisis even worse. I believe that the Government further compounded its failure to its citizens by not reconvening the Dáil last week and not introducing emergency supports. I agree with the words of my union, SIPTU, leader, John King, when he said, "Despite the cost of these measures, they contain little to no relief for the vast majority of workers and households, who are left completely exposed to a cost-of-living crisis and mounting inflation." The question we ask here tonight is if this is fair? As we heard, home heating oil is the most expensive it has been in a generation. Petrol and diesel are on course to exceed the highest prices on record. Ordinary PAYE workers and their families are now bearing the brunt of the €500 million package but will see little benefit as their euro buys less food and other essential staples, like fuel and energy costs, continue to rise beyond their wages. The protest last week should be a wake up call but there is no sense that the Government is listening. As one woman said to me during the week, the Government says it is listening but does not seem to hear anything. That seems to be the problem. The Government says it is listening, but is it? Can it hear the pain people are going through? I agree with others that we must break the back of our dependency on fossil fuels by going all in on renewable energy but where is the just transition that was promised? Why are data centres that are sucking the national grid dry not being forced to introduce district heating systems? That is something that could be done. It would not cost the State anything. It is happening in one of the data centres in my area. Why are ordinary households paying more for energy than the data centres? Why are we turning off renewable energy at night-time when vulnerable citizens are freezing in the homes? Will the Minister of State answer these questions at some stage?

Sentiment score: -0.02