Cuirim fáilte rompu go léir. I welcome the students from St. Michael's in Finglas and also students from the City of Dublin Education and Training Board, CDETB, Parnell Square. Ironically, it is lovely to welcome them from Parnell Square on a day when Deputy Marie Sherlock has done so much to secure the future of the Rotunda Hospital in Parnell Square.

Sentiment score: 0.44

Many people in Ireland are now at breaking point from the cost-of-living crisis. This crisis has not just persisted; it has been turbocharged by global instability for sure but also by the Government's policies. Households are struggling on every front, with the price of housing, groceries and energy. Those already in poverty are being pushed even further to the margins and everyone is feeling the squeeze. The costs of everyday essentials have skyrocketed. In five years, butter and milk are 45% more expensive. This is not a statistic. These are the totals that people dread seeing pop up as they check out at the supermarket. People's bills are rising, while salaries stagnate and the Taoiseach is just standing by. The Government stood by while motor insurance crept up, while the biggest health insurers hiked their prices by more than 10%, and now, with Trump and Netanyahu’s warmongering, and the retaliation by Iran and Hezbollah, we are seeing costs being driven even further through the roof. Home heating oil, notoriously, has jumped 40% in a matter of days. One woman, who emailed me to raise her concerns, had to revise her email before she hit "Send". She said that they had put up the price again in the time it had taken her to type the message to me. This is price-gouging, pure and simple. Irish energy bills were already inflated, long before this war. Petrol and diesel prices are climbing, but instead of taking on Deputy George Lawlor's proposed price caps, the Government hides behind working groups and task forces, letting the market run riot and making luxuries out of everyday essentials. People are scared. Morgan McKinley tells us that pay rises have stalled, with wage increases lagging behind inflation, recruitment slowing and living standards slipping. I am helping a man who has taken a second job to try to support his family. He and his wife send their teenager to school with just bread and butter and a banana for lunch, while cutting back themselves. They are not alone in living that hardship. Let us not even start on housing costs. Unaffordable and unavailable, last month the median price for a home in Dublin broke €500,000 and the Government's new rental rules mean an amnesty on rent hikes and an incentive to evict. There are so many notices to quit in Wexford and around the country. In 2022, when Russia unleashed war on Ukraine, the Taoiseach told people to wait for inflation to reduce and when he cut temporary cost-of-living measures, he told people to wait and see. Households in Ireland need a government that intervenes when costs spiral, not a bystander government or a government that shrugs. No one expects the Taoiseach to end world war, but will he act decisively to support people who are up against the wall and will he intervene to support those who are struggling in a cost-of-living crisis?

Sentiment score: -0.22

The Taoiseach outlined measures taken. The Labour Party welcomes any measures that will ease pressure for struggling households, but even the Taoiseach acknowledged that families and households are still struggling, and that not enough has been done to help people, who are now desperately fearful as they see the likely prospect of inflation spiralling again and as they see already, as I have said, home heating oil vastly increased in price. Here is what else the Taoiseach could be doing, because the Labour Party has proposed constructive solutions. The Government could use the powers it has under the Consumer Protection Act 2007 to cap the price of home heating oil, as Labour has urged, instead of just saying it will keep matters under review. The Government could, of course, if it was a government that took climate action seriously, invest heavily in renewables to support people who wish to and, indeed, need to make the transition away from reliance on home heating oil. The Taoiseach speaks about retrofitting, but we have seen simply not enough done to encourage the sort of retrofitting revolution that my colleague Deputy Ahern has called for. Will the Taoiseach take on tangible practical additional measures to support struggling households?

Sentiment score: 0.20