I will start by giving my two cents, because 2 cent is all the Government believes people who use home heating oil are worth. A scabby cut of 2 cent on home heating oil is insulting. It will save a person €20 on a fill of a tank, a fill that now costs around €1,700. Not only is it scabby; it is also underhanded. Very soon, the greedy hands of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael will yank this measly 2 cent back off ordinary people by hiking up the carbon tax. They give with one hand and will take back with the other. It is smoke-and-mirror tactics. The Government voted down Sinn Féin's proposals to completely remove the excise duty on home heating oil. This would have provided real, meaningful relief. Government measures are nowhere near good enough. Half measures avail us of nothing. Even before the conflict in the Middle East began, Ireland was top of the charts. We had the highest prices of petrol and diesel in Europe. We are top of the league. We had one of the highest prices of petrol and diesel in Europe, and we are top of the league in electricity and gas prices. This is a league nobody wants to be top of. Last week, Sinn Féin gift-wrapped the Government the solution to bring down the cost of petrol and diesel. We handed it to the Government on a plate. It dithered while the prices at the pumps went up and up. Right when people needed the Government, it let them down. It allowed companies to price-gouge and increase prices at the pumps. What amazes me is how quickly garages can put up the prices of petrol and diesel. Straight away, up it goes. It also amazes me how slow they are to reduce them. They were not reduced this morning when I came into work. They were not down at all. This is on the watch of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. I will use my time to discuss the fuel allowance. The criteria have to be looked at. The extension does not go far enough, but the criteria for the fuel allowance need to be looked at. A number of people have contacted me recently in relation to fuel allowance, who, as a consequence of the housing crisis, are no longer eligible. Their adult children may have got an eviction notice and had to move back into the family home. Where their parents would have been previously eligible for fuel allowance, they are no longer eligible for that because a working adult has re-entered the home. That is something that needs to be looked at. As I said already, gas and electricity prices have gone through the roof. The prices are, as I said, some of the highest in Europe. The Government, in its wisdom, decided to do away with the energy credits which would have helped hundreds of thousands of people across the State. There are 320,000 people at this very moment who cannot afford to keep up with their energy bills. Two thirds of people in this country have less than €5,000 in savings. Talking to the people whom I represent on a daily basis, that little nest egg they have of less than €5,000 has been eaten away. If something comes up with an unintended price, they are unable to deal with it, such as a medical bill. People have contacted me in relation to bills for their vets. They are unable to deal with the things that they would have been able to deal with over the last number of years. As I said, the Government should have done better, could have done better and decided not to do better.

Sentiment score: 0.09