Sinn Féin has consistently and repeatedly called on the Government to tackle the extortionate rents that are crippling workers, families and students. We told the Government the way to do this was by cutting rents through a refundable tax credit equivalent to one month's rent and, crucially, by banning rent increases for three years. We were very clear. Both measures must go together in order to give hard-pressed renters the relief they so desperately need. The tax credit for one month's rent would put a meaningful…

The Government's record in office is that a housing crisis has morphed into a housing disaster. As a matter of fact, and for the record, since the Government took office, annual rents have increased by €3,600 in Dublin and €2,800 across the State. That is the Government's record. The facts speak for themselves. I am raising the issue of renters, specifically those who are under pressure and those who are looking for the relief that we have been seeking for years, with the Taoiseach as he spreads the largesse. I hav…

-----for this to work, and for renters to have relief, there must be a ban on rent increases for three years.

I invite the Taoiseach to correct the error in the proposals made yesterday.

We are very real.

The Taoiseach did not answer the questions.

The Taoiseach is wrong.

This budget comes at a time when our people are struggling with the most serious cost-of-living crisis in 40 years. The challenges households face are reminiscent of those that people faced in the late 1970s and the 1980s. Families find it very hard to make it to the end of the week. Soaring energy bills and motor fuel costs, extortionate rents and sharp increases in the price of food have combined to create a perfect storm for workers and families. It is true to say that even having a full-time job does not allow …

Instead, the budget continues the cycle of failure that is the hallmark of this Government. It entirely misses the big picture. It has no answers to the big questions in housing, health and in the cost of living. It shows that the Government is not prepared to do what must be done to protect households really in the here and now and that it has no plan for a future in which all of our people have good and secure lives. When we look beyond the trumpeting of billions and the splash headlines, we see there is no chang…

There is no progress to be found in the budget measures for social and affordable housing. There is no increase in capital spending, no increase to the paltry targets the Government has missed time and again, and no credible action plan to stem record homelessness. In this budget the Government blatantly ignores the lived experiences of a generation locked out of affordable housing as the Government desperately attempts to dress up failure as delivery. People caught up in the housing crisis are not fooled. They see…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCeann Comhairle. Workers across the country will be deeply alarmed and angered by the Government's latest plan for the State pension. Let us call this what it is: a Trojan horse designed by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to move the pension age to 70 by stealth. The cat is out of the bag. The Government wants people to work until the age of 70. I suppose this will not come as a surprise to anybody because, after all, these are the parties that were hell-bent on raising the pension age to 67 and…

All of the anxiety that has been caused on this issue has been caused by the Taoiseach and people of his ilk who had plans, bear in mind, to ratchet the pension age up to 67, 68 and beyond. The Taoiseach cited all sorts of reasons and rationale for doing that. Our position has been and remains consistent that the appropriate and fair age to be given the choice to retire with one's pension is the age of 65. What today's proposal sets out is a system of deferral, an enticement the Taoiseach might say, for people to w…

-----ratchet the pension age up to 70, and that is simply wrong. I am not one bit ageist. For sure, there are those who will wish to work beyond the age of 65 and they must be facilitated in that. More power to them. However, we live in the real world, gentlemen and ladies, and we live in a world where people who have worked from a young age in very physical jobs simply are not able and do not wish to work beyond 65. Let me repeat my question to the Taoiseach and he might answer without evasion or insult towards me…

-----not simply to set that out?

Then the Taoiseach should address-----

He has not.

We in Sinn Féin introduced legislation on that years ago.

Okay. The Taoiseach does not want to answer. He will not stand over his own proposal. Fine.

And an enhanced pension at 70.

Yes. I have described it accurately.