Only in this Government's twisted world could it present a hike in student fees as a cut. The Government is literally trying to convince people that up is down. Whatever way the Minister tries to muddy the water with this, students, parents and others understand it is costing €500 more in fees this year than last year.

Does the Minister think the students of Ireland cannot do the maths?

They know Fine Gael are screwing them over and over and making out that it is trying to do them a favour. That is the reality of it. The Minister should come off the stage. The Tánaiste should come off the stage.

The Minister is jacking up student fees. Be a man, own it, be proud of it, declare it and stop trying to pull the con job he tried earlier on.

Sinn Féin has called on the Government to give working people the break they deserve. We called on it in this budget to scrap the USC on the first €40,000 that people earn. That is the fair way to cut taxes. That would put nearly €750 into workers' pockets this budget. We told the Government to scrap carbon tax increases but it plans to put them up tonight and for the next number of years, all with the support of Michael Healy-Rae and Danny Healy-Rae, who could not stop talking about it when they were on this side …

It is reckless to drive up the cost of living at a time when so many people are just hanging on. It is reckless to drive more people into energy poverty but that is exactly what this budget will do. We called on the Government to increase pensions and core social welfare payments by €15 to reflect the reality of prices that were rising and putting serious pressure on those families. We asked the Government to deliver a €20 increase for disability payments to recognise the additional cost of living with a disability…

It is ordinary people who pay the price over and over again. It is like the Government does not believe workers and families are deserving of an affordable life. In every budget, it produces - in fairness to the Government - a master class in delivering for the few at the expense of the many. This budget is no different at all. The Government has no appetite for delivering a better deal for working people. It is too hard for it, too much effort and too much work to change direction and put ordinary people first onc…

The people of Ireland have had enough of all of that. They deserve so much better than being cheated year after year in every empty budget the Government has served up. We have a situation here where we have spending overruns in the billions. When one looks at the budget the Government produces, one wonders what the point is. Last year, the overruns were €4.6 billion or thereabouts.

We have overruns over and over again. The fact the contingency fund of €1 billion is so large is an acknowledgement that the two Ministers have put up the white flag and said it is now a feature of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael that overruns are out of control and we cannot curtail them, so let us put a wee pot of €1 billion there to deal with these overruns in the future.

During the year, spending runs out of control and the Government acts like it is normal. There are billions more spent but no more houses built. There are overruns and overruns but no improvement in services. There is a breakdown in financial management in this State, from the hundreds of thousands of euro on bike sheds to the tens of millions spent renting empty offices to the billions of euro on the national children's hospital that still is not even open. The international protection accommodation services, IPAS…

You should be red with embarrassment instead of trying to heckle me across the Chamber.

Another election promise broken. You have been involved in government for about 16 years and you have made a balls of it, I agree. Just like childcare, you have copied Sinn Féin's plan to abolish the means test for carers. Again, you are welcome to that policy, but let us get it implemented. What Government has done in this budget would mean it would take it more than a decade to abolish the means test for carers in relation to the amount of money that has been set aside, and that is not acceptable to us or indeed …

-----because soaring house prices and rip-off rents are hard-wired into Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael's housing plan. It is not a bug in the system; it is a feature. Incompetence alone does not explain the housing crisis. It is not by accident that we are in this situation; it is by design. Over a decade into this housing crisis, and we have politicians in government wringing their hands, saying that they are doing all they can to solve it while the crisis gets worse. Every single year the crisis is getting worse. What…

Gabh mo leithscéal?

An raibh an Taoiseach ar na sráideanna nuair a tháinig na mílte daoine agus 130 eagraíocht Ghaeltachta amach le rá go bhfuil €55 milliún sa bhreis de dhíth orthu don Ghaeltacht? Tá an Rialtas ag déanamh neamhaird agus damáiste don Ghaeltacht arís agus arís eile agus sin fírinne an scéil. This budget is going to come and go like the rest of them. Nothing I have heard here gives me hope that the crisis we face will be addressed. I fear that many people are in for a long and hard winter. When we were growing up, our p…

Answer the question.

Is it good value for money?

Some €100,000.

I could build you a bike shed for a lot cheaper than that. Some €100,000 - it is mental.

Deputy Mac Lochlainn is asking for clarification.