I will respond in reverse order. I thank Deputy Farrell for raising this issue. I understand that publication will happen in the next number of weeks, hopefully before the recess. In relation to Deputy Richmond who raised the real problem we have at the moment in regard to people being able to get taxis and get home safely, I am not sure there is much we can do for this weekend or for the next couple of weeks but the solutions are probably threefold, namely, more 24-7 public transport, better terms and conditions f…

In the past two and a half years, we have lost three giants of the civil rights movement in Ireland, namely, Seamus Mallon, John Hume and Austin Currie. They were three of the great pioneers of peace, change and non-violence on our island. Their legacy lives on all around us. Today, it is my honour to pay tribute to someone whom I had the honour of getting to know when I first became interested in politics. He inspired me then and he continues to inspire me today. For me and many of us in Fine Gael, Austin Currie w…

I thank the Deputy. That was a cheap shot. I hosted a dinner last night to thank colleagues for their years of service. There was no public money involved. Sinn Féin hosts dinners in America, charging people €1,000 per plate to attend, and the party leader flies first class to get there. That is what Sinn Féin does in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis. I believe she is about to announce another first-class trip to Australia, which she will undertake in the coming weeks. She will be clinking champagne glasses wi…

-----and that is one of the biggest landlords in the State, owning 50 properties-----

-----and from a person who operates his constituency office using public money from some sort of republican company. Cheap shots from Deputy Doherty should be seen for what they are by the Irish people.

I want to deal with the issue, having responded to the cheap shot. The ESRI report is stark. I do not think it is surprising to anyone in this House. We all know the extent to which petrol and diesel prices have soared in the past year. You only have to fill your tank or go into the forecourt to see that.

We all know the extent to which the cost of electricity and gas has gone up. You only have to look at your utility bill to know that. People are feeling the squeeze. Some families are really struggling and having to make very difficult decisions about what they spend their money on because of the increase in the cost of living. These are largely driven by international factors, including the mismatch between global supply and demand and, in particular, Putin's war in Ukraine. If Deputies go to Northern Ireland, Bri…

We cannot go any lower. I have confirmation on that in relation to diesel from the Minister for Finance today. We have reduced VAT on electricity and gas to 9%, which is the lowest it has ever been. We have taken €200 off people's electricity bills and introduced a targeted measure giving people on fuel allowance an additional €100. That is what has been done so far. We accept we need to take further action to help people with the cost of living and are working on such action. The budget is three and a bit months a…

That was another cheap shot-----

-----and a very personal shot, which says a lot about the Deputy and the character of the kind of person he is. It is particularly strange coming from him because he was prosecuted. He abused and mistreated a member of An Garda Síochána. He was prosecuted for that and found guilty. He got away without a conviction because of his age at the time but he was actually prosecuted. He was arrested. That is what happened to him. There are a huge number of convicted criminals in his party and in the wider republican family…

The courts will decide, as they decided on Deputy Doherty. He was prosecuted and taken to court.

What I acknowledged yesterday is that the very real housing crisis we face in this country is a disaster for many people. It may not be for the 60% or 70% of us who are lucky enough to own our own homes, whether through a mortgage or outright, but it is certainly a disaster for people who cannot afford to buy a home and really want to and for people who are paying very significant proportions of their income in rent. I do not deny that is devastating for them and that there is a housing crisis, nor have I. I did no…

There is one point on which I agree with the Deputy, which is that the housing crisis affects a great number of people in society in different ways, whether it is people experiencing homelessness, people paying unaffordable rents, people who want to buy their first home but cannot or people who own their own home but who still have adult children living with them, which they find very distressing on behalf of their children. I get that and so does the Government. The Deputy touched on the need for affordable housin…

Listening to the Deputy's contribution, somebody would be forgiven for thinking we had done nothing at all this year. We have taken a lot of action this year, including increases in the State pension, weekly welfare payments and the minimum wage. We are currently in negotiations with public servants about pay increases for them. A lot of pay increases are happening in the private sector at the moment. The Deputy mentioned students. We have made changes to the SUSI grant which will kick in in September. All of these…

Looking at the facts and statistics, and the data are produced by the Central Statistics Office, CSO, so it is not my opinion; they are just facts, for the past few years up to this year, average earnings have risen faster than inflation. That is true in respect of the minimum wage, public sector pay and pay generally. This year is different. We are seeing unprecedented inflation and prices rising faster than incomes. As a result of that there must be a response. Part of that response is going to be bigger pay incr…

-----and reducing the cost of public transport, as we have done. We have to see it as a package in the round. That is the way the Government is approaching it.

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. We believe it is appropriate to apply inheritance tax on transfers of wealth between generations. If people are taxed on earned income, it is only fair that people should also be taxed if they inherit income. It has always been recognised, however, that where the beneficiary is a child, including certain foster children, there should be a generous threshold before inheritance tax kicks in. These are called group A inheritors and the threshold is currently €335,00…

I thank the Deputy. We are not going to abolish inheritance tax. As I said earlier, we think it appropriate that if we tax earned income for which people have worked, it is, therefore, also appropriate that we tax unearned income that people receive by means of inheritance, capital gains or other means but I agree that we should increase the thresholds over time. That threshold of €335,000 has been increased in recent years. It is supposed to be pitched around the cost of an average house so the average person coul…

I would argue we have already introduced an emergency budget. Some €1 billion worth of budget measures kicked in only in January. Since then, we have approved a further €1.4 billion in additional emergency measures after the budget, including the reduction in VAT, the reduction in excise on petrol and diesel, the €200 discount on electricity bills for every household and the additional €100 in fuel allowance. As I mentioned earlier, while I am not ruling out further interim measures, we do not plan any at the momen…

As the Deputy mentioned, the ESRI recommends a number of measures in its report. I was interested to hear spokespeople for the ESRI talk in interviews about discounts on energy bills - one of the things we have done - as another option and one that benefits lower income households more than higher income households, proportionately. They also talked about increasing income tax credits, which is a form of income tax cut and they also talked about reducing PRSI. There are lots of options on the table and lots of ways…