He ignores the fact that hundreds of thousands of households cannot pay their electricity bills; that families the length and breadth of the country are struggling with their rent, grocery bills, and to put bread on the table. He does not want to know that. There is nothing strategically positive about leaving people in poverty. There is nothing good about creating that level of stress or hardship for families and workers across the country. The Taoiseach's own Minister accepts that. He has said out loud what we al…

It seems, no matter how hard it gets-----

-----Fianna Fáil and Micheál Martin, are quite happy to let people struggle on but people will not tolerate that-----

-----and the Taoiseach will get his response again.

The Taoiseach is completely out of touch.

The Taoiseach is completely out of touch. Does he actually pay bills?

Does he go to the supermarket?

Do you?

Do you?

No, you do not.

When?

This morning, we hear of another scandal involving the care of vulnerable children in this State. Forged references were provided for staff at special emergency accommodation for children, putting vulnerable children in harm's way. These settings, as the Taoiseach knows, are unregulated, poorly resourced and unregistered facilities not inspected by the authorities, yet more than 1,000 children were placed in these settings last year. The State pays out literally millions to private operators to run them, all becaus…

Can we extend a very warm welcome to Margaret Loftus, who is in the Public Gallery and is appearing before the justice committee today? The Taoiseach has published his spring economic forecast and it tells a very clear story. The Government expects the State's surplus to grow from €5 billion to over €9 billion, meaning billions more flowing into the Exchequer. The Government is taking in billions more, yet people cannot afford to heat their homes. People cannot pay their electricity bills. It is as though there are…

That is guff, plain and simple. The Taoiseach has given us a catalogue of his own failures. On housing, the metro and infrastructure, it is fail, fail, fail on his part. Now, as we learn that the projected surplus will grow from €5.1 billion to more than €9 billion, the Taoiseach has the poor mouth for struggling families. That is all he is offering. I do not know if the Taoiseach thinks that people live lives of fiction. I want him to hear very clearly that families are struggling now, today, in the here and now. …

They do not have lower bills.

You do not live in the real world.

You do not live in the real world.

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael attempted a shameful plan to cut SNAs, with some schools facing a loss of as many as six or seven SNAs with absolutely devastating consequences for children and young people. Of course, they were forced into a U-turn by the anger from parents, children, young people and, of course, SNAs. This cannot happen again. Our motion this evening calls on the Government to immediately engage with the Save our SNAs campaign and advance and implement its updated and improved circular on the role of SN…

Will the Government engage with the campaign?

It is what?