Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-16
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Pearse Doherty (SF), Donegal

A young woman wrote to me and lots of other people this week. I think it is important for me to read out what she said. Listen to this. She said:
My own situation is becoming unbearable. Despite being in a dual-income household, I haven't been able to afford home heating oil for three weeks - three weeks without heat, not because I have been irresponsible but because I simply cannot afford it anymore. At the same time, I'm paying extortionate rent for a home that I can't even properly live in. Damp is setting in because I can't afford to heat it. I feel trapped. I am being squeezed from every angle with no relief and the future feels completely out of reach.
She went on to say:
I will never own my own home in this country despite working full-time and doing what I was told - going to college, getting the degree. As a working-class child of two working-class parents, that dream is gone. There is no pathway forward, only increasing pressure and diminishing hope.
They are the people the Tánaiste needs to be listening to, not waving his graphs. He should listen to ordinary people and respond. What was the Government's response this week? It would not cut a single cent of carbon tax from home heating oil. She is in a house that she could not heat for three weeks. She works full-time and her partner does the same, and the Government ignored her this week because it is not listening and it is completely out of touch.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-16/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:49+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-16