Cost of Living Issues
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-30
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Louise O'Reilly (SF), Dublin Fingal West

I am a constituency TD, as is the Minister. I listen to my constituents and I have talked to people in my own party. From our read of it, there is a need for an intervention from the Government. We have proposed €400 in energy credits, a cut to the USC, which would be worth €500, €400 in emergency welfare payments and a €500 cost-of-disability payment, as well as an additional eight weeks on the fuel allowance because that is what people need.
Last February, I was ten years in the Dáil. The Minister has been here longer. I have never experienced the level of poverty that I see in my constituency offices in Balbriggan and Rush. I have never seen anything like it. My constituency manager would say the same thing. People are desperate and being put to the pin of their collar. We are not making this up in the Opposition. This is coming to us. The Minister saw people on the streets, not just in tractors, but in wheelchairs, telling the Government very clearly that they were making choices between heating, eating and charging their mobility devices. The time for intervention is now.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-30/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:49+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-30