Cathy Bennett

Access to mental health services should be based on need, not on where you live and most certainly not on your ability to pay. Unfortunately, for many people across this State, that is not the case. I have no doubt that the Minister of State's office and that of the Ceann Comhairle are, like my own, inundated with people who are desperate to access mental health services, especially child and adol…

You decided to forget those people.

What about childcare?

What about the promises?

Promises.

The Government forgot students, childcare and housing. I could go on and on.

The fees are increased by €500.

That is why the Minister of State was ringing them.

No increase for the working person.

Is the Deputy sure he did not vote for the carbon tax?

Did the Deputy vote for the budget?

You voted for the budget, though, which had the carbon tax in it.

I congratulate all the junior certificate children who got their results today. I wonder if they will remember the Fine Gael budget that happened today, which was championed by Fianna Fáil. I hope they will. Will they remember in years to come the cruel disappointment that struggling families, workers and many others experienced today? General election promises have been forgotten very suddenly. T…

That is right.

So the Deputy is going to vote against it.

Tomorrow, the Deputy will have his chance.

In the face of an ongoing cost-of-living crisis and a student accommodation crisis that has seen more students and families forced to pay upwards of €14,000 for a single year's accommodation, and despite having contested the general election on a platform of reducing college fees, the first action the Government took was to announce an increase of college fees of €1,000 per year. Now, the Governme…

The Government put up their fees by €1,000.

So, the Government is putting up fees.

The Government is putting up fees. Just to clarify, we are in the South and the Government is putting up fees.

Thank you.

You are very considerate.

Sinn Féin supports an auto-enrolment pension scheme. We believe it is the Government's responsibility to foster a retirement framework that ensures workers are financially secure in their retirement. However, both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have a poor track record on retirement policy. While Sinn Féin believes workers should have the right to retire at 65 should they choose to, or continue to work…

I disagree with Deputy Byrne. As far as I can see, school transport is getting worse every year. Every year I am contacted by parents whose children have been utterly failed by this Government. With little to no notice parents are left to shoulder the burden of attempting to reschedule work and other commitments to deal with the Government's failures while children see buses full of their schoolma…

I welcome the parents in the Gallery. These parents suffer every day because this Government is not doing its job. Every child deserves a place in school and every child with additional needs deserves a place in school. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have failed, and continue to fail, children. It is the ordinary families like the parents here tonight who break their necks and are left simply to cope o…