For the past two elections, we have had more seats that Fine Gael.

The Minister needs to get his head out of the clouds and sand and talk to ordinary people. He can pontificate all he wants, point fingers at me and say I am isolated and people do not back me in here. I do not give a damn because I know that I am on the side of ordinary Irish people. I know that people are being pushed to the pin of their collar. I have met them on the streets and in homes across the State over the past number of weeks. I know they need action and leadership and they are not getting it from the Min…

I am not asking the Minister. He should not be stupid. He should not be silly.

I am sure the Minister will not listen to this either.

He always listens. The last time the Minister listened the Government was trying to turn the Army on our own people. That is the listening. That is the reaction we got from Government.

Let me just say this here-----

Some 750,000 households across the State rely on home heating oil to heat their homes. Last night, at a public meeting attended by hundreds in Galway to discuss the cost-of-living crisis, I spoke to a carer who went into a home of an elderly woman. She worked all her life, paid her taxes and did everything right and apologised for the house being so cold because the heating had run out. The Minister refuses to cut excise duty on home heating oil to support household like hers, along with 750,000 other households. W…

I do not want it suspended; I want it cancelled.

This is the problem. The Minister does not understand the scale of the crisis or the lived experience of many people across the State. Before we had a fuel crisis, 320,000 families could not pay their electricity bills. Families were pushed to the pin of the collar because of increases in grocery prices, rents and insurance and childcare costs that were like a second mortgage. A generation felt home ownership was outside of the reach because of Government policies. The fuel crisis, brought on by external factors, h…

The Tánaiste's mantra again speaks to me of the fact that he does not understand where people are at. Does the Tánaiste think the woman who wrote to me does not know what she is earning? Of course she knows what she is earning but she also knows that the cost of electricity has gone through the roof. She also knows that the weekly shop is a lot more expensive than it was last week, that the cost of childcare is another mortgage and that rents are increasing. Now she also knows that her house is cold for two weeks b…

What is she supposed to do? Should she wear another jacket or tighten her belt? What advice do you have? Should she put on another coat?

That is nonsense.

Are you saying they are just stupid and not managing their budgets? What are you saying?

They cannot afford their heat.

They cannot afford their heat.

You need to have a bit of cop-on.

You know that excise duty cannot be reduced in the North.

Do not be stupid. You know that. Do not let yourself down.

For God's sake, you know that the North does not have taxation powers.

I raised the crisis in people's homes in terms of their electricity bills with the Minister on numerous occasions. If we were to visualise this, it is 300,000 families. How many times would we fill Croke Park and the Aviva Stadium over and over again with the families who cannot pay their electricity bills? It is absolutely scandalous that people have been left in this situation. Time and again we have put forward the arguments that it was wrong to withdraw energy credits at a time of a cost-of-living crisis. It wa…