Blister packs are essential for people who live with dementia. They are an essential part of the lives of people on medication who live at home. It is even essential for first aid responders who come to houses looking for people, as they know what they have taken. The main point in the debate is that the blister packs are for the same people who have blisters on their hands from working all their lives to support the Government. These are the people who are now retiring. They are the same people to whom the Government gave €10 extra in the budget for their pension. Now, it is taking €20 back. Let us flip to the other side. These are the same people throughout the country from whom the Government has taken €3 billion in carbon tax this year. Let us look at the amount of income tax this Government has taken in the past 12 months. What did it do but lower the USC? It never changed the tax base. It gave a minimum wage increase and taxed people more on the minimum wage increase. It said it was doing something good but it was taking it all back off people again. My God, has it come to this for the people in this country that the Government is giving them this and then taking it back? It is not taking it back singly; it is taking it back on the double and treble. These are the same people that come looking to the Government for help with their electricity bills. These are the same people who are saying they are doing without food themselves to provide food for their children. These are the same people that come to the Government to say they want to bring their elderly parents home with them. They want the Government to allow them to put up a modular unit on a small piece of ground at the back of their house so they can take care of them. These are the same people that are taking care of their own family because the Government did not. The Government cannot look after a simple blister pack.
Sentiment score: 0.13
I am sorry. I have another half a minute.
Sentiment score: -0.04
Fair play to the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. It is a Limerick thing. These are the same people that are looking at a children's hospital that has gone €1.2 billion over budget, yet the Government cannot look after the vulnerable in regard to blister packs.
Sentiment score: 0.12