Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions Dail Éireann — 2026-03-05 ============================================================ David Cullinane (SF), Waterford They are faced with insurance cost increases, and now energy price increases, which have skyrocketed over the past few days. Not a single word of what the Tánaiste said will bring any comfort to families who are under fierce pressure. I do not believe that the supports he said are in place are in fact in place. One of the measures the Government brought in was to increase the carbon tax, which has increased the cost of fuel on families, not made it any cheaper. The Tánaiste's approach is that his head and those of Government representatives are in the sand. I do not believe they really get it. If they did, they would have supports in place. I am asking the Tánaiste to speak directly to those families and to the people who contacted me. What should they do? They are faced with those hikes now. A bill comes in the door, or their tank at home is empty and needs to be filled, but they have no money, or whatever money they do have simply will not be enough with all the other bills. What message is the Tánaiste giving them? What do they do? He should speak to them, because I have not heard a single word from him about what they should do. The Government's head is in the sand when it comes to the cost-of-living crisis. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-05/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:44+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-03-05