The Minister of State listing off the crumbs that were given out by the Government to those who are being crushed by the cost-of-living crisis is utterly meaningless. I thank Deputy Healy for bringing forward this motion, which People Before Profit strongly supports, as it details the absolutely crushing assault on the cost of living for working people, the least well-off, people with disabilities and pensioners. Prices are up 23% in the past five years. Food prices are up 5% in the past year. Electricity prices are 24% higher in this country than the EU average. Electricity companies announced 10% increases just in the past year. Gas prices have doubled in the past five years. The average rent in Dublin is now €2,100 per month and rising. It is set to rise even further with the Government's residential tenancies rent hike Bill. House prices are up 8.1%. Rents have gone up 40% in the past six years. Motor insurance premiums are up 17%. Toll charges are up. Local property tax is up. Student fees are up, and childcare fees still continue to be a second mortgage for those who have to pay them. I could go on. People are being crushed and it is not just us saying it. The Parliamentary Budget Office confirmed that the Government's budget made things worse and that general poverty will increase as a result of the budget. Child poverty will increase to 15%, poverty among the elderly will increase to 17% and the poorest 20% of the population will see their incomes fall. We have record numbers of people contacting the Society of St. Vincent de Paul looking for assistance with the energy bills they cannot pay. Child poverty is at shocking levels with 190,000 children suffering child poverty. Some 298,000 people are in arrears with their electricity bills. I could go on with the horrible list. That is a litany of what is being done to working people and people with disabilities, who lost, according to their own assessment, €1,400 as a result of the cuts in one-off payments, emergency payments and so on. This is the reason they are going to be on a very angry demonstration on 28 February. Due to the Government's failure to deliver a cost-of-disability payment, they are going to be on the streets demanding the winter payment and demanding a cost-of-disability payment. Incredibly, the Government took €1,400 of them in the budget, which is absolutely shocking. What is the other side of the coin to these attacks on the vulnerable, the least well-off and working people? It is a profits bonanza. Between 2013 and 2023, corporate profits in this country went up 300%. Tesco profits last year were €185 million, up 54%. SuperValu profits were €134 million last year, which was up on previous years and big dividends were paid out the shareholders. ESB profits in the first half of 2025 were €424 million, which was up on the previous year that was also a record level of profits. Cairn Homes recorded €150 million in profits, up 32% on the previous year. Glenveagh Homes had €132 million in profits, up 86% on the previous year. The cost-of-living misery suffered by working people, by pensioners, by those with disabilities and by students is being caused by a Government that is prioritising the profits of people who are actually benefitting from all this. For example, in the budget the Government gave out €300 million extra in just one tax giveaway for research and development, most of which will go to massively profitable multinationals. These are the priorities of this Government. It is to look after the rich, big business and those who make profits and whose incomes are made from dividends, while screwing working people, the least well off, people with disabilities, students and the vulnerable in our society. That is why we say that we need to mobilise and why the demonstration on 28 February is so important. It is also only the beginning of Affordable Ireland's campaign to mobilise against this Government and to demand that the benefits of the economic growth in this country in terms of housing, food and energy prices, as well as incomes that actually sustain a decent standard of living for people become the priority.

Sentiment score: -0.04