That was promised before.

You forgot about your bike shed.

This is the last budget from this Government and like all others there will be a spending increase. But the question we must ask ourselves, as with all other budgets, is if it will make the big difference that people need in their lives and the difference they are crying out for. Will it address the housing crisis, and make housing affordable, as laid out by Sinn Féin? The answer is no, it will not. Will it fix the health service that is on its knees? No, it will not. Will it address the cost-of-living crisis in a …

We called on the Government to deliver 21,000 social and affordable homes in the budget and 100% redress for those living with defective blocks in Celtic tiger apartments. Not one penny more has been provided for those schemes, despite them being expanded. For regeneration of inner-city flat complexes and those communities that have been waiting for decades, there is nothing from this Government.

Sinn Féin would make sure that they were central. We need to tackle the issue of dereliction in our cities, towns and villages. That is the scale of the ambition needed. The Minister can shake his head all he wants. Every year he has sat at the Cabinet table, the housing crisis has become worse. House prices, rents and levels of homelessness have gone through the roof. Homeownership for those under 40 has collapsed under this Government's watch. I will take no lectures from Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil in this matter.

The Government needs the scale of ambition to match what has been put forward by Sinn Féin. The truth hurts, as we hear from the heckling here. It is a sore point that not a single extra social or affordable home above the existing targets have been provided. We have long campaigned for the renter's tax credit. Do you remember that one, Paschal? You fought me tooth and nail on that and said it should not happen, because it would go into the pockets of landlords. The Minister needed to do two things; a tax credit an…

Under the watch of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, what has happened to the average rents? That is for existing rents. The increase for new rents is actually way higher than that. It is the same across the State. The tax credit the Minister is providing is going into the pockets of the landlords but I suspect he knew that all along. It is just another way to feather the nests of landlords. One of the things the Minister, Deputy Chambers, did not mention in his speech is the fact that he is giving a tax break of €112 mil…

-----but, when we look at delivery, the Government again falls short. Key to supporting families is the availability of affordable childcare. Sinn Féin has shown how childcare could be delivered at €10 a day. That would have been a game-changer for families but the Government would not go there. This could be delivered next year for all parents in centre-based childcare and Tusla-based child measures and then rolled out to all other childminders. We now see that all the Government's talk about supporting parents is…

The public will have their opportunity to decide if they want a party-----

-----with real vision, ideas, plans and commitment or the soundbites we hear from Government benches. Sinn Féin knows that the cost of raising a family does not stop when your child reaches the age of 18. We would stand up for students and parents by abolishing third level fees, starting with a reduction of €1,500 next year. Again, the Government refuses to go there. It talks about a temporary reduction. What is required is the scrapping of third level fees, beginning immediately. Fees for apprenticeships should al…

-----with the cost of living in so many ways. We called on the Government to tackle this, to deliver a fair tax package for all workers and to give workers and families a break. We said they needed their money put back into their pockets. What the Government has instead brought forward again in this budget is a two-tier tax package. It picked winners and it picked losers. Someone on €150,000 will get €959 in tax breaks but a worker on €40,000 will get €369. The Minister knows this.

The Taoiseach also knows it. That is half of all workers in the State. The tax package for half of all workers in the State will be €369. There was a fairer way to do this. In our budget proposals, Sinn Féin showed how the Government could have cut tax fairly in a way that benefits all workers, including those on low and middle incomes. That is what it should have done. We also would have abolished the USC for the average worker and made sure that no worker paid the USC on the first €45,000 earned. The Government's…

Ireland has one of the highest rates of low pay in the European Union. That did not happen by accident. It happened as a result of Government policy. We would support businesses' transition from lower wage employment with a PRSI rebate of €250 million targeted at the employers most impacted by increases to the minimum wage. The Minister did not say anything about gold-plated pensions. He snuck that out in a press release last week. I have been responding to budgets for 14 years and never once has there been a bigge…

The cost has overrun by hundreds of millions. Are you trying to deny you had any involvement in that, Simon? Is that what you are trying to say?

Is that what you are trying to say, that you had no involvement in that?

All the while, on the Taoiseach's watch, the Bill goes up. When BAM said it would withdraw-----

-----Deputy Harris said, "No way, keep going" and he kept writing the cheques.

Almost a million people-----

Are you finished, Taoiseach? Almost a million people are on waiting lists. We have all been waiting. We have been waiting for this Government to get its act together but it has not happened and is not going to happen. It is becoming harder and harder for ordinary workers to see a GP. Dental treatment for people with medical cards has collapsed. Mental health services in this State are threadbare. Everybody knows that. People who are reaching out and looking for support on the other side are not getting it. This is …

-----to cover beds, urgent care, women's health, older people, mental health and national strategies. This is a paltry sum.