I echo the other Deputies' thanks to Deputy Healy for bringing forward this motion. It is very well written and comprehensive. It articulates a lot of what is wrong in the country right now and the cost-of-living crisis. I attended a conference late last year, hosted by the European Council on Social Rights, on the cost-of-living crisis. At that conference, I and many others heard that the bottom 20% of households are the most vulnerable to cost increases. Cost inflation for that cohort in Ireland is at about 5%, nearly twice the rate of annual inflation, far beyond the social protection increases in budget 2026 and one of the highest in Europe. Core to this question of the cost of living is what the components are. They are energy, food, childcare and housing - the list seems endless. What is not often reported are the extreme levels of costs in Ireland relative to our European peers. We have the highest electricity costs in the EU, the second most expensive food prices in the EU, some of the highest rents and mortgage interest rates in Europe and no public model of childcare. Our exceptionalism in how we rip people off in this country is unparalleled. What was the Government's response? It was a budget for this year that increases poverty, according to the Parliamentary Budget Office, and leaves disabled people €1,400 worse off than they were last year, according to the Irish Wheelchair Association, driving an exceptional level of need among households. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul reported the highest ever demand for its supports among the impoverished. This is a damning indictment of how this Government has left too many behind. As my colleague, Deputy Cummins, said last week, the Social Democrats put forward a measure for a modest emergency winter payment for disabled people to help the most vulnerable population in the State with this cost-of-living crisis. We were met not just with resistance from the Government but outright disdain. What this Government is crafting is a society with a tale of two cities - one for those who are doing well, who have benefited from this Government and which caters to developers and special interests and one for everyone else. Everyone else, those who have a different life experiences or do not agree with the Government measures, are tarnished by words from this Government of being "alarmist" or accused of being "dangerous and misleading", as they were last week. In an age of misinformation and disinformation, this Government has proven itself to be the most adept king of spin. Disabled people are not choosing between heating and the food according to the Government, even when they tell us that they are. Instead, they are, as one disabled person put it, perceived as liars. The Government touts progress in housing while new records in homeless numbers are set every quarter. The Government says it is pumping billions of euro into capital in energy development and yet all offshore wind farms in this country lie idle. The people of this country are not fools. They know someone is misleading them. They know it is not disabled people, renters, those punished with vulture fund mortgage interest rates, climate activists or us in the Opposition. They know who is doing misleading and they know it is the Government.

Sentiment score: -0.13