Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-16
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Paul Murphy (PBP), Dublin South-West

I do not think the Government gets it. If it got it, we would not have seen the scenes we saw over the past ten days. That is a result of the Government not listening and not acting. One in five people is at risk of poverty. Two in five parents have skipped meals or cut back on what they are eating in order that their kids can have enough to eat. Hundreds of thousands of people are in arrears in on their electricity or gas bills. That is what drove the protests. The common cause I and People Before Profit make is with people who are fighting for action on the cost-of-living crisis. The core demand that emerged from the protests related to price caps.
We were the only party calling for price caps. We introduced a Bill precisely two years ago in which we called for price caps. We will not allow ourselves to be intimidated from supporting protests by the presence of some far-right agitators with their own agenda who are simply trying to hijack and misuse people’s anger. We make no bones about supporting effective protest.
I have heard the Tánaiste say on multiple occasions that the package brought forward the other day had nothing to do with the protests. I do not think there is a single person in the country, including the Tánaiste, who believes that. No one believes it. The message the Tánaiste sent out on foot of his actions is that protest works and achieves results and concessions. That is a message to everyone. We want to see that built on by mass, effective – including disruptive – protest to force universal action for everyone.

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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