I welcome this motion and thank Deputy Healy for bringing it forward. It is timely. Personal debt is up. Nearly 300,000 households are in arrears with their electricity bills. Profits are up massively, as has been outlined. Private health insurance has gone out through the roof. The motion outlines a number of serious measures that need to be taken. I want to add the issue of private health insurance. Unfortunately, people, particularly the elderly and those who have health issues, have to take it out. Costs have escalated in recent years. They are not going up once a year, not twice, but three times a year. In the past 12 months, VHI have increased premiums on three occasions. Laya has ramped up prices. All of them have ramped up prices. One Laois couple, who are 81- and 82-years-old, have seen their policy go up to €4,506.66 per annum. They live on one pension. She is an adult dependant, and it is their only form of income. They have the most basic cover. All they have is the minimum. They are terrified to let it lapse because both have health issues. A sum of €4,500 per annum is not affordable for pensioners who are just on a single State pension. They couple in question are in a very difficult situation. They have to pay rent, heating, electricity, shopping and home repairs. It will really cause financial hardship. There is a copy of their demand, which they shared with me. We are supposed to moving to universal healthcare, under Sláintecare. We have a year or so left to go in this, but we have made snail's pace progress. I accept that Covid-19 held it up for a year or so, but we are still nowhere near where we should be. We need to get Sláintecare, which is a universal public health system, in place. We are way behind the rest of Europe. Health costs are putting a huge burden, on top of the things outlined here in the past half an hour, on top of households and particularly vulnerable people. We need equal access to treatment regardless of ability to pay. It has to be based on medical needs alone. We are completely out of step and in the Dark Ages compared with the rest of Europe, including countries that are much poorer than us. We need to get that in place and move forward as quickly as possible to it. I want to mention something in support of one big measure in the motion. I refer to the extra costs of disability. The basic payment is at €232 a week. It is much lower than the poverty threshold, which is deemed to be at €291. There are significant extra costs for people with disabilities. Last year - when I say last year, I refer to the budget of October 2024, when we were on the cusp of an election - there was €400 extra in a cost-of-living payment for disability. There was €300 extra in fuel allowance in one payment alone. The living alone allowance was up €300. Electricity credits were up €200 each time. There was €230 extra on the basic Christmas bonus. Last October, there was no election but there were no increases like this. Zero. They all came and went but the expenses that people have are still the same. In fact, they have actually gone up because of the rate of inflation, particularly for essentials - and this is the key point - like food, heating, electricity, health insurance and health costs, which people should not have to pay. There are very basic measures called for here, including to implement a rent freeze - the Government is going to the do the opposite on 1 March, which is terrible - or implement a living wage. Introducing a cost-of-disability payment is key. Also, we need to speed up the implementation of Sláintecare and get a public health system. Energy credits should be reinstated, particularly for low-income households. The Government should not shy away from taxing the billionaires. The billionaires have the cash. Other countries do it. We need to take a bit of it off them and give it to those people who are at the bottom end. All the statistics show that the gap between those at the bottom and those at the top has widened. We cannot continue going like this. We cannot have a situation like America. We have to have a fairer society like the rest of Europe. That is what we need here and I ask the Minister of State to withdraw the amendment and support this motion.

Sentiment score: 0.02