I think that might have been in a very exceptional circumstance of Covid to take money out of the fund.

Later today, along with our finance spokesperson, Deputy Nash, I and my Labour colleagues will be introducing our alternative Labour budget and our proposals for budget 2023. We are doing so at a time when we are facing unprecedented crises. There is a crisis in the cost of living, and there are exorbitant price increases in food and fuel and in basic household necessities. We are also facing an energy security crisis and a chronic housing crisis, where are seeing so many people being priced out of homes, either to…

I think everyone across the country will welcome the Tánaiste's commitment that in the budget in just five days' time, we will see from Government a response of scale, and in the Tánaiste's words, "a multibillion euro package". However, what we need to see is also an ambition of scale and a real ambition to address these crises that are confronting so many households and a real ambition to take the necessary radical measures that will be required to sustain families, households and businesses through a bleak winter…

I spoke earlier about the rising costs of childcare. A constituent has contacted me because, despite staff seeing a very welcome pay increase at the crèche her children attend, a sizable fee increase has been imposed upon parents. The concern she and many constituents, and others throughout the country, have is that crèches and childcare facilities may have signed up to the new core funding model without passing on any benefit to parents. Indeed, parents are now seeing prices and fees rise in childcare facilities. …

I speak for the Labour Party as we face a triple crisis with the cost-of-living crisis, an energy security crisis and a housing crisis. Undoubtedly, the cost-of-living and energy crises have been exacerbated by Russia's brutal war on Ukraine, and we see just this week even more evidence of the brutality and horror of Russia's aggression against Ukraine. There is also no doubt, however, but that the Government has been failing to build up the necessary infrastructure to ensure the supports to get us through a cost-o…

We in the Labour Party are calling for the Government to introduce an immediate ban on evictions to protect renters and stop people from entering homelessness this winter as we face into a bleak winter ahead. We are seeing with alarming frequency distressing stories of families literally left out in the cold. We have seen just this week reports of a family sleeping in a tent in Herbert Park in our own constituency. We in the Labour Party have called on the Government to grasp the nettle on housing. We simply have n…

We know that inflation will likely reach the 10% mark this year. That is an extraordinary and alarming figure. We know that already the cost-of-living crisis is biting hard on so many households, families, and individuals across the country. In the face of this, the Government has only committed to an increase in the minimum wage to bring it to €11.30 per hour, amounting to an inadequate response. There has been a real cut in wages for the lowest paid in our society and, furthermore, people will have to wait six mo…

There was not 10% inflation.

And rising.

I thank the proposers in the Regional Group for putting forward this motion on security of energy supply. Clearly, this is a hugely pressing issue and very topical as we face into what can only be described as a bleak winter ahead, a winter which we know many households and many struggling families and individuals, are already in fear of. All of us are meeting people around the country, in our constituencies, who are really fearful about the winter ahead, the cost of energy and the consistency of energy supply. We …

First, on behalf of the Labour Party I extend a welcome to the British ambassador, who is here, and I extend our condolences to the British people and to all those on this island who have been impacted by the sad loss of their Head of State. I also note the very positive contribution their queen made to relations between Britain and Ireland on her visit here, not just to Cork but also to Dublin and other parts of the country in 2011. We all remember that visit with great affection. I pay tribute again to the contri…

I thank the Taoiseach. That is important and we welcome the moves made at EU level on a windfall tax but there are things the Government could do here too that should be done. Let us look at it in the following way. We have significant levels of gas consumption coming from our own Corrib gas field on this island and we know that Vermilion's revenues last year increased by 267%. The cost of production for that gas has not increased but the price of gas supplies is now costing multiples of what it did one year ago. W…

Earlier I asked what the Government would do to protect people from the skyrocketing cost of energy and what it intends to do to address both the cost-of-living crisis and the energy crisis, and I suggested that radical and creative measures are needed. We in the Labour Party have proposed a measure that would have the dual effect of helping households struggling with bills and helping us to reach our very much-needed climate targets, and that is Labour's climate ticket. Our proposal is that the Government would in…

I thank the Taoiseach for setting out the detail of the Department’s annual report. I am glad to say that we, in the Oireachtas special Joint Committee on Gender Equality, are on track to complete our work in December and to produce a report on the implementation of the recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly on Gender Equality. I look forward to engaging with the Taoiseach on that. In terms of strategic priorities for our economic development and social progress, one glaring issue which requires prioritisation b…

I thank the Taoiseach for providing the information on the parliamentary liaison unit, which, as we know, provides detailed information on matters upcoming in the Dáil and Seanad and carries out a number of other functions. I want to raise with the Taoiseach a particular issue pertaining to a service which has been providing a similar service to the public, namely, the Citizens Information service, which over some decades now has been providing a very important face-to-face service across our communities but about …

Citizens Information offices.

I thank the Taoiseach. I will continue to engage with him.

I agree with the Taoiseach's words on John Hume's vision and with his reflections on the brutal war in Ukraine, from which we are seeing an enormous impact. We have to recall those who come here fleeing other wars. In recent days, I have heard real concerns around a resettlement programme for Syrian refugees fleeing war and Afghan refugees who are here and in many cases seeking family reunification, and the need to speed up the processing of their applications. That is important, alongside the welcome we need to co…

All of us speak on the motion this evening in the context of what the Minister has rightly described as unprecedented times. In effect, we have a three-pronged crisis - a cost-of-living crisis, an energy crisis and a chronic housing and homelessness crisis. This is framed by the overarching spectre of the climate emergency. It is indeed an unprecedented time. On this side of the House, as well as on the Government benches, we are all conscious that if these crises are not urgently addressed by the Government we are…

In this unprecedented cost-of-living crisis, we all know there are certain individuals and families who are living in particular fear - fear about safety in their homes and fear about the cost of remedying defects in the construction of their homes. Last month, for example, I heard from a mother who informed me that the possibility of her daughter progressing to third level education had been cast into doubt because of the cost to the family of having to fix the defects in their defectively built apartment to ensur…