Pearse Doherty

That is the trick. At least own up that you broke your promises.

At least own up that you broke your promises.

You hate being confronted by the truth. Over and over again, you break promises.

You have done it over and over again.

I condemn in the strongest possible terms the disgraceful attack on an IPAS centre in Drogheda last week. There should not be any tolerance whatsoever here, and I know there is not, for such aggression and attacks of that nature. At this stage, most of us have seen the images - we have all been appalled by them - of an accelerant being poured before the fire was lit, a fire that trapped children i…

No they would not.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire. This is far from a Bill that deserves commendation. It is a shameful Finance Bill. It is one that abandons workers for those at the very top. If the Minister was out canvassing, meeting people on the streets or at their doors, they would tell him straight up that they have never felt it as bad and that the Government has abandoned them. The Government has chosen deli…

It is not agreed.

There is a real crisis for people living in unsafe homes with defective concrete blocks. That crisis is far from over, despite what the Government may think. People are still living in fear every time there is a red weather warning, forced to watch as cracks spread and walls shift, as their home crumbles right around them. The Ulster University study summed it up best when it described it as an ea…

We all know - at least those of us on this side of the House - that there is a substantial additional cost to disability. There is a mountain of evidence, report after report, setting it out in black and white. The cost lands on the shoulders of individuals and families across the State. The question we in Sinn Féin and those on this side of the House are asking is why the Government is refusing t…

Before I begin, I want to mention the developments overnight which have raised the prospects of a ceasefire and an end to the Israeli genocide in Gaza. I hope for a peace that is lasting and brings justice and freedom to the Palestinian people. Tá stampa Fhine Gael ar gach leathanach den bhuiséad seo a bhí foilsithe Dé Máirt, buiséad a thréigeann daoine atá ag obair chun aire a thabhairt dóibh si…

That is what the Government did in this budget. No matter how hard the Tánaiste tries to spin - no doubt he will try to do it again - he said he had the backs of the students of Ireland. He has double-crossed them. It is another broken promise. The third one is on childcare costs. Speaking to the Irish Independent in October last year, just a month before the general election, he pledged to deliv…

That is not good enough, but it is what the Tánaiste did. Does he get why so many workers out there are so angry with what the Government has delivered in the budget? Does he understand that they feel really let down by the litany of broken promises?

Seriously? Does the Tánaiste really believe that?

The Tánaiste speaks about honesty. I will read back his words from before the election-----

-----so maybe he does not put much credence in it.

Wait until he hears what Fine Gael promised the people. It was to increase the higher tax-band threshold, raise the point at which a worker enters the higher tax-band by at least €2,000 each year.

That is what Fine Gael promised.

It promised a plan-----

----on childcare costs within 100 days.

The Government has no plan. Fine Gael has broken promise after promise because that is what Simon does.

He says what needs to be said at a point in time-----

-----and then forgets all about it. The families of scoliosis know that and now the workers right across the State know what he is all about.

Two and half million workers have been abandoned in this budget. I put it to the Tánaiste, at a time when the Government made tax breaks available to investors, banks, developers and landlords, why did it consciously decide to leave workers worse off in this budget? That is shameful.

What it has done is shameful. It has broken its promise. Can the Tánaiste explain-----