People Before Profit was very centrally involved in organising what was an amazingly broad and diverse coalition, the Ireland for All coalition, that put tens of thousands of people on the streets, including community groups, trade unions, anti-poverty groups, housing campaigners, Traveller organisations, Opposition parties and many more. The first objective of that enormous demonstration was to send a clear message to the far right and those who want to use racism and want to scapegoat asylum seekers and immigrant…

Over many decades, tens of thousands of women and children were wronged by the church and the State in this country. The twisted morality of the church and State at the time forcibly separated mothers and children. The Government apologised and promised to bring in a redress scheme. However, as the Taoiseach will know from the many emails that have been sent to Deputies and Ministers, it then shockingly decided that people who had been in a mother and baby home for less than six months did not deserve redress. This…

Six months.

It appears to be a tactic of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to skip out of these debates and not listen to the Opposition on what the Government claims it believes to be the most serious crisis facing the country. It does not matter how we feel but I believe it is insulting to the people who are caught up in the housing crisis that the Minister is clearly employing a quite worked-out tactic in these debates. For the people who are really suffering extraordinary misery and hardship how could…

Wholesale.

Jackie and her husband are a lovely couple in their 50s. He has worked all his life for a semi-State company. Tomorrow morning, I will be accompanying them and their two children to the District Court where their landlord is seeking enforcement proceedings to evict them from the home in which they have lived all their lives. Because they are over the threshold, they are not entitled to social housing and are not entitled to housing assistance payment, HAP. They are absolutely goosed. They need hope. At the moment t…

They are in court tomorrow.

No, it does not. The Tánaiste just does not understand. I have been saying it for weeks.

Because the notice to quit was before the Government introduced the ban, it does not apply.

I have only got one minute. I have said it about 20 times in this House.

Yes.

I am seriously worried about their welfare.

In 1908 Ireland's greatest revolutionary and an immigrant, James Connolly, said, "Let no Irishman throw a stone at the foreigner; he may hit his own clansman." That is as good a summary of the reasons why thousands of people will take to the streets of Dublin this weekend, involving dozens of organisations, trade unionists, community activists, antiracism activists, housing campaigners, antipoverty campaigners and community organisations. They, like James Connolly, understand that if we are to address the very real…

I asked for this debate by the way, just so that the Minister knows.

Absolutely.

That is what we will be doing on Saturday.

I thank the Social Democrats and Deputy Whitmore for tabling the motion, which we are very happy to support. The main reason we have a cost-of-living crisis is profiteering and privatisation. That is what needs to be addressed. People Before Profit first tabled a motion in the House in October 2021 calling for the introduction of price caps on energy, gas, oil and electricity. We have been calling for approximately a year and a half for the introduction of a windfall tax on the energy companies that are making obsc…

We are currently getting regular radio advertisements and other advertisements from the Government Information Service, GIS, indicating to people that support is available for them if they are impacted by the cost-of-living crisis. The problem is that people who are impacted by that crisis are often very uncertain about these fairly general announcements and need a human being they can go and see to explain the often complex and difficult circumstances in which they find themselves when they are applying for things…

There are major problems in processing basic but often urgent and critical applications for people in my local authority. I think it is part of the wider problem of recruitment and retention of staff in key areas of the public service. I will give just two examples. If people are looking for medical priority in the housing list, often in very serious situations, they are now having to wait between six and nine months in my area just to get the application processed. For example, Leo, who is 73 years and has chronic…

In one of the richest countries in the world we now have tens of thousands - if not hundreds of thousands - of people dependent on food banks for food. Hundreds of thousands of people are now in arrears with their energy and utility bills. Some 12,000 people are officially homeless in emergency accommodation, but actually the numbers are multiples of that. I believe the Government's economic subcommittee is meeting this Thursday to discuss possible measures to address all of this. I put it to the Taoiseach that the…