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this State. One in three families struggle to pay their energy bills. Something like 50% of families find it hard to put enough food on the table to feed their children. Yet the Government, at a time of plenty, has decided to make their lives harder. That … this budget is a betrayal of disabled people and states that it will strip away vital supports and lead to a deepening of poverty. It points out that the past three budgets have recognised the extra cost of disability through the disability support grant, which is now gone

absolutely essentially but, with respect, it is not what I am asking about. For example, investment in special schools will not put food on the table, pay bills or pay people's rent. Ireland has the lowest rate of employment for disabled people in Europe … told us how embarrassing it was for them to have to do that. One in five disabled people in Ireland lives in consistent poverty. That was before the Government slashed their payments. The Government is either not listening, does not get it or simply does not want

true cost of living after tax. People in my position are working hard yet still struggling daily to afford basic necessities such as food, electricity and heating. We feel overlooked and forgotten despite our efforts to contribute positively to society. The Minister in his statement spoke about … change in their lives and it is not coming. Another thing that was lacking in the Minister’s statement was mention of energy poverty. That was something the Department spoke about a number of years ago but all we hear now is energy affordability. The Minister is denying

Government took a decision in the budget to give huge tax cuts to developers, the fast food industry and the hospitality sector to boost trade and competitiveness. In doing so, it has made people 2% worse off according to the ESRI and the bottom 10% of society … hear that retail prices are three times higher than wholesale prices. Massive profiteering is taking place in electricity that will increase poverty, but it is also a huge cost on small businesses, which the Government claims it wants to help. When will we have a not-for-profit

State see their bills continue to rise and have to balance paying their bills, keeping a roof over their heads and putting food on the table. Sometimes this balancing act is simply not possible. I meet people across my constituency forced to make the most difficult of decisions … over 300,000 households in arrears on their energy bills. Despite this trend of rising energy costs, rising energy arrears and rising energy poverty, Government refused to include energy credits or a broader cost-of-living package in this year's budget. This decision flies in the face

workers and on families more generally. That is why we announced a €750 million package, which will help workers, farmers and contractors. Food production is very important. The general excise duties will help also. We also increased the State pensions by €10 in the budget. We increased child … extra €8 for the families of children under 12, bringing it to €58 per week. That was to deal with child poverty because we did prioritise child poverty, along with housing and infrastructure. We also prioritised disability. An extra €500 million was allocated to disability services. We increased

coming into force? Nobody has that type of money lying around. For some households, it is the difference of being above the poverty line and whether the Government likes it or not, that is a fact. I have counted at least eight programme for Government commitments to addressing … done is continually increased costs faced by these households. The Government favoured a VAT cut rate of nearly €700 million for fast-food chains that were already making millions of euro in profits while disabled people and their families can barely afford to keep the lights on. This

fertiliser and pesticides and Gulf-based fossil fuels. It has been warned that if this crisis persists, fertiliser prices will increase and ultimately food prices will rocket, causing huge problems for the poorest people on the planet, but also for western economies. In Ireland, if anything was shown … rolled out across all homes, not just for people who already have very nice incomes and homes. There is huge energy poverty in Ireland. The motion cites that almost one third of households are in energy poverty. There are huge arrears on gas and electricity bills

Department of education. The Government managed to spend nearly a billion euro on fuel supports without any new measures that will tackle energy poverty or address the near €200 million of arrears on household gas and electricity bills. As our Labour Party finance spokesperson, Ged Nash, has said … pressure in this cost-of-living crisis. There is pressure from rising energy bills but also from skyrocketing grocery prices as we face food insecurity, and from escalating housing costs. We need substantive engagement from Government at the upcoming LEEF talks, substantive engagement with the trade unions

cost of living at a time when so many people are just hanging on. It is reckless to drive more people into energy poverty but that is exactly what this budget will do. We called on the Government to increase pensions and core social welfare payments … Government has short-changed pensioners and those on social welfare. The rate increase of €10 does not even cover the cost of food inflation. That is the reality of it. We called on the Government to enhance and increase the renter's tax credit. Indeed, the Government committed

supplies with consequential impacts on other products like fertiliser, helium and so on, which in turn could have impacts on jobs and on food production across the world. These are very serious issues we are all facing. We acknowledge fully that this is creating pressures on families … from our perspective, in the budget we majored very heavily on housing, on infrastructure, on disability, with a 20% increase, and on child poverty, with the support payments for children going up substantially by record levels. For children over

Government also refused to hold Bord Bia and its chairperson, Larry Murrin, to account. He has the job of promoting Irish food and I understand he is paid just under €200,000 to do it. Instead of that, he is actually importing Brazilian beef. This is a conflict … third are only living off the farm because someone from that farm is working off the farm. One third of farmers are in poverty or going into debt. Every year, the number of farmers is falling in this country. Will the Government listen to the farmers

have been fantastic in making sure that no one feels stigmatised and every single child gets a hot school meal. The shame of poverty is something else. Only those who experience it can truly describe what it is. The hot school meals programme will make sure that every … they are still hungry then. I really want to see that programme rolled out to secondary schools. We need to make sure the food that is provided there is nutritious and is something they want to eat. Getting that balance, as anyone who is a parent will know

that is spiralling out of control. We have record homelessness. We have disability services that are threadbare. We have soaring levels of child poverty. We have a cost-of-living crisis that is escalating and we have energy and water infrastructure that is crumbling. The reality is this … prudent financial management while they struggle with the very basics. They struggle to keep a roof over their heads, their electricity on and food on their tables. The public services they need are just not there for them. I ask the Tánaiste to please spare us his lectures

were too long. The physio appointments cost me €75 per session." Gary said the only way he could feed himself was to buy food that was going out of date and reduced, cook it off and freeze it. He goes on to describe his choices as being between … country who feel targeted and attacked by the Taoiseach's Government. They are among the most vulnerable and most at risk of poverty in our society. They face enormous additional costs running into thousands of euro every year because they have disabilities. This Government, instead of supporting them

choices this Government was making - which industries it wanted to give tax breaks to, which boardrooms would be popping Champagne, and which food chains would see bumper profits next year under its watch. We heard all about the great choices this Government wanted to make while the cost … chosen to leave behind - the carers, those facing redundancy, unemployment and underemployment, people living with disabilities and the children living in desperate, degrading poverty. The overarching problems I have with the social welfare Bill are twofold. On the one hand, the increased rates of social welfare payments

living just on the margins when it comes to being able to cover their costs. That there are 250,000 children in poverty is an indictment of this Government and its policies. One of the biggest creators of inflation and cost in the country is the Government … they are going to continue to rise for the next five years. Another problem in this State is the supermarket sector and the food processing sector are both oligopolies. They have been allowed develop into oligopolies and they have oligopoly power. Their strong buyer power means can force

poverty is through employment. That absolutely is no longer the case. There are tens of thousands of workers living in poverty because of the cost of living, including the cost of childcare, housing, electricity and insurance for cars and so on. He cites statistics to show the economy … high earners and those at the top with wealth. The actions called for in the motion are incredibly reasonable. Stopping price gouging by food and energy companies is something the Government could actively do. Another suggestion is introducing price controls on food, electricity, gas and fuel. When

living for working people, the least well-off, people with disabilities and pensioners. Prices are up 23% in the past five years. Food prices are up 5% in the past year. Electricity prices are 24% higher in this country than the EU average. Electricity companies announced 10% increases … just us saying it. The Parliamentary Budget Office confirmed that the Government's budget made things worse and that general poverty will increase as a result of the budget. Child poverty will increase to 15%, poverty among the elderly will increase to 17% and the poorest

even worse. People who come to Ireland to work are doing essential jobs such as: looking after older people; picking, packing and cooking food; working in hospitality services; driving buses; building houses; working as nurses and doctors; and staffing our hospitals. They have been recruited to work here … family reunion impact negatively on a series of issues like wages, education and language acquisition and can lead to long-term household poverty. The OECD's International Migration Outlook 2019 had a focus on the impact of family reunion on integration. It reported that spouses who arrive with

highest in Europe, punishing rental or interest rates, inaccessible childcare miles away that costs a second mortgage and the cost of goods and food, groceries and other everyday items surpassing the rate of wage growth. The core truth of the cost-of-living crisis is that for many … illegal war on Iran and the energy crisis it has brought about but the Government spent months and years not reacting, making poverty rates climb, according to the Parliamentary Budget Office and the CSO, allowing price-gouging to go unchecked and incentivising rents and mortgage interest rates

says a lot about the priorities of the Government that it can have fast-tracking of VAT cuts for fast food giants and developers whereas, although it has this on-the-paper commitment to an annual cost-of-disability payment, the payment does not come in. Instead … living. The rate of enforced deprivation for disabled people who are unable to work is massive at 39%. The rate of consistent poverty is one in five. We have the lowest rate in the entire European Union of disabled people who are in work. The Government

while the national figure is 3.5%. It does not look like a crisis. There are 15,370 businesses in food and beverage services. Of these, 99.8% employ fewer than 250 people, making up 85% of the turnover. What we have is the State subsidising a very small number … companies share €54 million of a windfall gift from the Government, in a country where we have 640,000 people living below the poverty line, including 190,000 children. Will the Tánaiste accept that the Government has, let us say, made an error in judgment or a miscalculation

amount of deadweight, while Bord Bia consumer spending in food services data shows that 60 per cent of the benefit goes to fast food outlets and hotels; — sectoral fuel supports and cuts to Excise Duty have been introduced by the Government, which includes changes to the Diesel Rebate … warm their home, and nearly half a million households are in arrears on their energy bills; — those most at risk of energy poverty, and reliant on fossil fuels, will continue to be hit hardest by further increases in energy prices; — Ireland has the highest energy prices in Europe

motion. I refer to the extra costs of disability. The basic payment is at €232 a week. It is much lower than the poverty threshold, which is deemed to be at €291. There are significant extra costs for people with disabilities. Last year - when I say last year … fact, they have actually gone up because of the rate of inflation, particularly for essentials - and this is the key point - like food, heating, electricity, health insurance and health costs, which people should not have to pay. There are very basic measures called for here, including to implement