-----for the honour and glory-----

-----of a roof over their heads. Yet, we come in here-----

-----week in and week out and listen to this rubbish from a Government that is failing. I ask the Minister the direct question.

In the face of the ESRI report, which is just the latest evidence of this catastrophe, does the Government still contend that it is getting it right because it very clearly is not?

Big bucks for developers.

The Government has failed.

The Government has failed.

Like Croí Cónaithe and €140,000 for developers.

We have just two weeks left in this Dáil term, which is two weeks for the Government to intervene with measures to alleviate the enormous pressure the cost-of-living crisis is placing on households. Yesterday, the Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputies Donohoe, and Michael McGrath, respectively, announced to great fanfare that budget 2023 will be brought forward to 27 September. This does not mean very much to workers and families who are at breaking point today, 5 July. A week is a long …

I thank the Tánaiste for his reply. Those high structural costs, as he knows, long predate this particular cost-of-living crunch, which I am sure he would acknowledge. The Government's response to these matters has been slow. It has lacked urgency but we can agree to disagree on that. What I would like us to agree on is that families preparing to get children back to school in late August need help and assistance now. I put it to the Tánaiste again that it is crucial that middle-income families have access to a bac…

It is not agreed. The haste with which the Government wishes to move the defective blocks scheme of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, through the Oireachtas is extraordinary and scandalous. I know time is short and we are coming towards the summer break, but we should reflect on the fact the defective blocks containing mica and pyrite have devastated the lives of homeowners and their families in Donegal, Mayo, Clare, Limerick, Sligo and at least eight other counties. I…

This merits comment. The Government is attempting to ram this matter through without proper scrutiny-----

-----and without proper amendment to produce another scheme that will fail. I will place on the record of the House-----

-----that the time allowed for consideration of this is wholly inadequate. People's homes, people's lives-----

-----and a lot of taxpayers' money is at stake here.

I will not be rushed, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, in making that point in the most forceful way-----

-----I can on behalf of those families and communities.

SIPTU members employed by the Irish Wheelchair Association are on strike today. They are on the picket line because they have not had a pay increase in 14 years. Even though they do the same work as HSE healthcare assistants, they are paid a lot less, which is €3 per hour less. As the Tánaiste will be aware, this is a common problem across section 39 organisations. These are organisations which do incredible work and provide vital services and yet are not adequately funded by the Government. Workers then pay the pr…

Last night Sinn Féin brought forward a motion calling on the Government to introduce an emergency budget to ease the enormous pressure on struggling households. I impressed upon the Taoiseach yesterday - at least, I tried - how this crisis is worsening for so many. Last night, however, even though families throughout the country are at breaking point, Ministers stood up one after the other in this Chamber and opposed an emergency budget. I listened to the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform's partner and pol…

In fact, the Government has demonstrated before that when it is those at the top, the Government is in like a flash but when it is ordinary people who need a bailout package, its message is tough luck. Tá sé doghlactha go vótálfaidh an Rialtas in aghaidh buiséad éigeandála anocht. A Aire, teastaíonn cúnamh ó dhaoine anois. Beidh sé tubaisteach dóibh iarraidh orthu fanacht ceithre mhí. Tonight’s vote then is a test for every Deputy in this House who sees their constituents suffering. One can either vote for them or …