Mary Lou McDonald

24. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet Committee on EU and international affairs will next meet.. [53180/25]

Workers are worse off today because of the Government’s budget. They are in shock and disbelief. What the Government delivered yesterday abandons and betrays working people to look after those at the top. The Taoiseach says the Government's budget was about protecting the economy, but it has pulled the rug from under the very people who are the engine of that economy. They are the people who get u…

When do they get their fair share? The Government is not giving it in its budget. Does the Taoiseach even recognise the hurt and anger that working people are feeling today? Why did the Government deliberately choose to deliver a budget that leaves them worse off?

Ní sé sin fíor.

Do not rise to that. Do not rise to it.

Evasion.

That is pathetic.

He is not answering the question.

Whatever about me borrowing the phrase from Fine Gael about those who get up early, which was well spotted, they have clearly forgotten about them as well. The more astonishing thing is that Fianna Fáil hook, line and sinker, all like nodding wee dogs, is going along with the Fine Gael agenda.

Incredible. Who would have thought, but there you go. I will tell the Taoiseach what workers want. They do not want to listen to his bluster. They want to be able to pay their bills. They want to be able to feed their children. They want to be able to run their homes. Erika wants to have a second child, but that is not on the cards. Erika and her family do not want to be forced out of Ireland, li…

The Taoiseach told me only a few short weeks ago that, "We will do what we can on taxation to alleviate the pressure on people." No one took that to mean landlords and developers.

We thought he meant working people.

We thought he meant people who generate all of these billions of euro in surpluses.

Can the Taoiseach explain again to the working people of Ireland how he arrived at the decision-----

-----to spend €9.4 billion and leave them worse off?

Explain that, Taoiseach.

A Cheann Comhairle, in fairness, he never answers anyway.

Jesus.

That is Fianna Fáil speaking.

The fees have gone up.

Take that up with the British Government.

If the Tánaiste is concerned about British policy, he should take it up with the British Government.

The Tánaiste is very sensitive.

You can answer it now.

This budget comes at a time when ordinary households are reeling from a cost-of-living crisis that is out of control. Workers and families are hit by rip-off prices in every direction. It is getting harder and harder to make ends meet and to keep up, and it shows no sign of letting up. It is rent, big electricity and gas bills, runaway food prices, the cost of petrol and diesel, crippling childcar…