As others have, I want to express my sincere condolences to those impacted by the serious tragedy on Talbot Street. I also want to say a word to commend the emergency services. They never know what they are going to see when they come into work in the morning but they still turn up, so they deserve all of our thanks. I want to address some of the remarks made by the Minister of State, Deputy Dillon, in his opening statement. Some of this stuff would be funny if it was not so serious. He referenced "sustainable" increases in the minimum wage. Sustainable for who exactly? Sustainable for employers, perhaps, or sustainable for business because it sure as Jesus is not sustainable for workers living on the minimum wage. Their wages are not going up anywhere near as fast as food or energy inflation. In fact, they are running behind just trying frantically to catch up. The Minister of State also confirmed that this Government has completely abandoned the living wage. It talked a lot about it but then when I thought about it, I asked myself when it was that the Government talked about it. Yes - it was just before the election. The same as all of its pre-election promises, like snow on a ditch, it is gone. There is no living wage for workers. It has been pushed right out, way beyond the term of this Government. In fact, there is arrogance in this Government's claim that it will somehow be re-elected and that at some point, we will get the sunny uplands of the living wage. Nobody is fooled by that, by the way. It is very clear in the Minister of State's script, which he diligently read out and every word of which he stuck to, that there will be no living wage. What is the living wage? It is the minimum amount that a person needs to live on. That is the living wage and that is gone. The Government just sanctioned a fairly hefty pay increase for the head of Uisce Éireann. He is nowhere near the living wage and he is still getting an increase. He could not spend in ten lifetimes all the money that he has. He will get a pay increase but people who are on the minimum wage have to be content with those sustainable increases, as the Government referred to them. The Minister of State also did not address the unaffordable cost of childcare because, again, that is one of those things those in government say when they are running for election. The Minister of State, Deputy Dillon will remember that his party leader could not pass a microphone back in October-November 2024 without reminding people of their commitment to introduce within 100 days of government a plan for €200 per week childcare. What happened to that? Again, all the pre-election promises are gone like snow off a ditch because they are in now and they do not care. We totally understand that. The Government has taken €1,400 off disabled people. Those are not my words; they are the words of disabled people. What was the response of the Government? The Minister, Deputy Calleary, said it was misleading and dangerous - he was very concerned - to suggest that people are choosing between heating and eating. Disabled people came to the audiovisual room - I did not see too many Government representatives there – and told us that there are days when they have to make a very real choice between the groceries and energy they need and the bills they must pay. I hope that when the Minister of State comes to read out his script, he might scribble a bit at the end and express a little bit of shame about that. That is €1,400 the Government took from people who are struggling just to exist. The Government is trying to do the same kind of thing that it did with the students when it jacked up the fees by €500 and then told everyone that somehow that was cut. People are not stupid. They have to manage their own finances. They have to balance their own books. They have to get themselves to the end of the week. They see what the Government is doing. They see you for who you are. They have memories that go back to November 2024 and all of those promises and they see them now gone - absolutely gone. One in five workers in this State today is classified as being in poverty. That is nothing to be proud of in a State where there are surpluses that run to billions and pay increases available to very well-off CEOs because obviously they have to be shielded from any cost-of-living crisis, but for the people on the front line of the Government’s policies, the people who will have to pay those higher rents when it rams its rent hike Bill through, there will be no pay increases for them, no big bonuses, no bonanzas, nothing like that. They will be told to make do and mend. They are gaslit by the Minister for Social Protection telling them their own lived reality is not true. They spoke very clearly. The people with disabilities said it. They are making a choice between heating and eating as a direct result of Government policy. It was hurtful and wrong of the Minister to try to gaslight them because people with disabilities face enough challenges in this State. They have to give 24-hours' notice to use some forms of public transport. It is very hard for them to access employment. It is very tough for them to get out of the house some days. It is near impossible if they do not have the money to power up their mobility devices. They were told it was dangerous for us to repeat what people with disabilities told us. The Government should be ashamed but it will not be. We see food inflation running at 4%. Again, 4% is just a figure but in real life that is a man standing at the checkout saying to a child, "Put that back, we cannot afford that this week." There is shame in that. These people come into my advice clinics and they tell me they are ashamed because they have to tell their kids that they cannot have something - sometimes it is something fairly basic - and I never, ever fail to remind them that the shame belongs to this Government. The shame is not theirs. They want to be able to provide for their kids. They work hard, but if they are on the minimum wage, they will not get any closer to the living wage under this Government. It has made it very clear. Any Government with a serious interest in protecting people from inflation has to do at least these three things. First, it must put supports in place and it must have targeted payments for energy and the basics for people to be able to live. Second, it must tackle price gouging. I heard it from Neale Richmond a couple of years ago. He was bringing in the heads of the supermarkets and he was going to talk tough. Jesus, we are paying an awful lot more than we were. I am probably glad he did not bring them in again because the prices went up almost immediately. The third thing that a Government should do is just not make things worse. Do not jack up the cost of going to college and do not jack up the cost of renting. This Government does not listen, however, and it does not understand that.

Sentiment score: -0.01