That is Fianna Fáil speaking.

The fees have gone up.

Take that up with the British Government.

If the Tánaiste is concerned about British policy, he should take it up with the British Government.

The Tánaiste is very sensitive.

You can answer it now.

This budget comes at a time when ordinary households are reeling from a cost-of-living crisis that is out of control. Workers and families are hit by rip-off prices in every direction. It is getting harder and harder to make ends meet and to keep up, and it shows no sign of letting up. It is rent, big electricity and gas bills, runaway food prices, the cost of petrol and diesel, crippling childcare fees and extortionate insurance premiums. The list is as long as your arm. You name it, it is going up. This budget sh…

I want to address just some of these broken promises. Broken promise number one is the cost of living. During the election, the Government was clear over and again that tackling soaring prices and the runaway cost of living was its biggest priority. As a man once said about empty promises, is that not what you tend to do during an election? That is certainly true of you lads. The Government has delivered a budget worth billions of euro without a cost-of-living package to help workers and families. That just beggars…

What of the renters of Ireland? Only a few months ago, the Government came forward with a Bill that will put renters on the hook for massive rent hikes, and now it shafts them again. There is no increase in the renters' tax credit, as Fianna Fáil promised, but Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil dug deep to increase the tax break for landlords to €1,000. Little wonder that most of those pushed into the nightmare of homelessness come from the private rental sector. Renters are shafted for the Government to feather the nest of…

The first 100 days of Government ran out on 3 May, which is over six months ago. That promised pathway must have run up a cul-de-sac somewhere because it is nowhere to be seen. This broken commitment means parents continuing to fork out a small fortune in childcare fees. That childcare promise was just another one of the Government's trademark soundbites. Is it not embarrassed by the way it has tried to hoodwink parents? It should, of course, have introduced our plan, which would actually deliver €10 a day childcar…

Be clear that students and parents will not be fooled by the Government's spin, because they will feel it in their pockets. Budget 2026 should have abolished student fees for good. The Government should be on a pathway to that. That is what it should have done, but it chose not to. We provided for a cut of €1,500 on the pathway to that. That was the right thing to do. Broken promise number five is that the Government will fix housing once and for all. How many times have we heard that pledge? The Government has cau…

Its refusal and inability to do what needs to be done has locked a generation out of affordable housing to rent or buy, left people stuck in the box rooms of their parents' homes into their 30s and 40s, and sent young people packing to Canada and Australia because they have lost hope of ever owning a home of their own. These are the consequences of the Government’s failure.

Twelve years ago, Fine Gael rolled out the red carpet for the vulture funds with sweetheart tax arrangements, and nothing has changed. Today, its policy remains wedded to the interests of wealthy property funds, developers and big landlords over the housing needs of ordinary people. The Taoiseach today described this strategy as Government policy encouraging private investment to crowd in. What that has achieved is everybody else crowded out, which he has clarified is the Government's approach. This budget again fa…

It is not fair, and once again the Government sells carers short. Is buiséad é seo atá scríofa ag Fine Gael. Tá Fianna Fáil ar nós iománaithe ar an gclaí ag breathnú air. I measc pacáistí móra cánach, tréigeann an buiséad seo oibrithe agus teaghlaigh chun aire a thabhairt dóibh siúd atá ar bharr an dréimire. Níl giorrúchán ar bith ann do ghnáthoibrithe, ach tá gearradh mór cánach do thiarnaí talún agus forbróirí. Tá daoine fágtha in áit na leathphingine. Níl gníomh ar bith ann chun an tsáinn a stopadh agus praghsan…

It is incapable of keeping promises made and its budget is testimony to that.

Hear, hear.

Cuirim fáilte roimh an rún seo. I thank Deputy Quaide and the Social Democrats for bringing forward this motion. In reality, there should not be need for this debate today. It is absolutely beyond argument that the carer's means test is unfair and disrespectful. As my colleague set out, it is actually demeaning. It needs to be scrapped. Two days before the general election was called in the previous year, a Sinn Féin motion was passed in the Dáil calling for that means test to be abolished. During the campaign, we …

The Government has a big problem with wasting public money. Yesterday, I raised with the Taoiseach that taxpayers will stump up €100,000 for another bicycle shed and the never-ending catalogue of waste on the watch of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. The Government is pouring millions of euro in people's hard-earned money down the drain. The Comptroller and Auditor General's report published yesterday raised serious concerns regarding the spending of taxpayers' money across the board, including the Office of Public Works…

I asked the Minister two questions. Does the Government take responsibility for the scandalous waste and lack of accountability and proper management I have set out? By way of response, the Minister reached for everyone else bar the Government. He should not attribute this waste to those who are in the accommodation. That is simply not an accurate reflection. That is not what the Comptroller and Auditor General found. What the Comptroller and Auditor General has found is utter incompetence and an incredibly cavalie…

No, responsibility for the state of play.