Mary Lou McDonald

That matter is absolutely clear.

Why do you refuse to act to protect workers and families-----

-----in this situation? You are negligent,-----

-----not me.

Family carers are not getting it.

I am routinely interrupted.

Oh my God.

We do.

They are trapped.

Works of fiction.

How is it that 100 electric buses costing €10 million of taxpayer's money are purchased and then sit idly for up to two and a half years? Why did this happen? It happened because when purchasing said electric buses, it was overlooked that you had to have chargers for the electric buses. We have seen a litany of incompetence from the Taoiseach's Government - the bike shed cost hundreds of thousands…

He sounds like Bertie now. Ominous words.

The credit union consumer sentiment index for April has been published and it lays bare the severity of the cost-of-living pressure on people, especially when it comes to soaring energy costs. It reveals that a third of consumers expect to cut energy use just to get by, while nine out of ten consumers fear that high energy costs will force them to cut back on household spending. The reality is tha…

There was a cost-of-living crisis before the war in Iran. More than 300,000 households were already in energy arrears. This crisis has very deep roots. The Taoiseach failed to acknowledge that. The budget last October left workers worse off and left people with disabilities worse off. The Taoiseach failed to acknowledge that. Families and workers are really struggling and the Taoiseach has no resp…

It is €3 billion.

It is costed.

It is not.

The Taoiseach cannot count, a Cheann Comhairle. It is very-----

Children with additional needs are being failed by the State. Some 7,860 children will need special class or school places for this September but the Government has planned for only 5,500 places. That leaves at least 2,300 children without appropriate places and takes no account of possibly hundreds more. These are not statistics; these are children being failed by the State. Parents have been lef…

We extend a very warm welcome to the students of the Holy Faith school in Glasnevin who are in the Public Gallery. They are very welcome. There is real anger among workers and families pushed to the brink by the cost of living. People are working and paying their way yet they are falling further behind with each passing week. We finally have a very frank admission from the Minister for public exp…

The Taoiseach's response is very telling because he ignores the immediate reality of people's lives.

He ignores the fact that hundreds of thousands of households cannot pay their electricity bills; that families the length and breadth of the country are struggling with their rent, grocery bills, and to put bread on the table. He does not want to know that. There is nothing strategically positive about leaving people in poverty. There is nothing good about creating that level of stress or hardship…

It seems, no matter how hard it gets-----

-----Fianna Fáil and Micheál Martin, are quite happy to let people struggle on but people will not tolerate that-----

-----and the Taoiseach will get his response again.