Pearse Doherty

Is the Tánaiste telling me that he has her back? She cannot heat her home.

She did not intimidate anybody.

She is sitting in a cold house. She is working every hour that God sends her.

She did not intimidate anybody.

The Tánaiste is diverting. There are people sitting in cold homes and the Government refuses to cut carbon tax.

I am sorry. I am deeply frustrated. I apologise to the Leas-Cheann Comhairle but not to this fella over there who is completely out of touch.

They voted no confidence in you. You may forget that. Are you serious?

This is Simon and his wee-----

You must be more worried about Micheál than we thought.

The Government is closing down ten beds at St. Vincent's Hospital, Fairview, for children in mental health crisis at a time when so many of our young people are crying out help and left in awful situations. We are talking about children in some cases with severe depression, anxiety, self-harming, eating disorders and suicidal. It is real pain. It is real suffering here. Their poor parents are at t…

We need them all.

You are so out of touch.

Their mums and dads were on the streets last week.

I would sit down if I were you.

You need to get out of the bubble.

Some of your backbenchers are cringing.

Níl an Rialtas seo ag éisteacht le gnáthmhuintir na tíre. Níl sé sásta an gníomh a dhéanamh le cáin a ghearradh ar bhreosla sa dóigh is go mbeadh sé ar phraghas réasúnta. I gceantar tuaithe na hÉireann fud fad na tíre, tá oibrithe, teaghlaigh, feirmeoirí agus comhlachtaí beaga faoi bhrú ollmhór, gan rogha ar bith acu ach praghsanna arda a íoc. Nuair a labhair daoine amach agus nuair a chuaigh siad…

That is not leadership; that is arrogance. That is a Government that is out of touch. What are people being asked to have confidence in? A package that still does not make fuel affordable. A 10-cent cut in excise gone with the next price increase. The Government outright refuses to cut carbon taxes, there is no removal of excise on home heating oil at all, nothing that fundamentally changes things…

-----and deliver real supports to households as well as sectors.

Include in that the energy credits to make sure that people are supported with the sky-high electricity costs. That is what real intervention looks like, folks. That is what leadership looks like.

I say to the so-called Independents over there and to the backbenchers opposite in Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael that they know damn well what is happening in their communities. They are hearing it every single day. People are angry and people are struggling and people are being pushed to the limit here. Sinn Féin has brought their voice into this Chamber and now all the Independents and backbenchers …

-----and this Government has not earned it. It has ignored the warnings, it has allowed the crisis to escalate, it has responded too late and even now it refuses to act decisively. I was elected by ordinary people, I speak out for ordinary people-----

-----and today I stand with ordinary people-----

----- in voting no confidence in this Government. It is time for it to go.

Hear, hear.