Call it out for Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

The Taoiseach has nothing to say about Saudi Arabia then.

On economic recovery, the Taoiseach is often fond of saying, rightly, that we should support people who are working. I have asked the Taoiseach repeatedly about the plight of people who are working but who are punished because their income goes over the social income threshold. I have mentioned multiple cases to the Taoiseach over recent weeks. I had another case this week of a young man who works in retail and who worked all during the pandemic in a supermarket. His partner is also working. Due to working overtime…

The review.

The longest consideration ever.

The utterly hopeless and disastrous situation in which many working people find themselves when it comes to trying to do the basic thing of putting a roof over their heads was summed up this week for me by a young man who came into my clinic. He works in retail and he is a low-paid worker. He works in retail and he worked all during the pandemic. His partner is also in low-pay, part-time employment. Both of them are working. They are both trying to get on in life. They came into my clinic to tell me that both of th…

I think the problem is the Tánaiste does not really seem to understand that the cost of living crisis that we are facing is, in fact, an emergency. Just like we had a housing emergency, which he finally and reluctantly had to accept existed, he needs to accept this is an emergency. Working people, pensioners and the least well-off are being absolutely crucified by the stratospheric increase in the cost of accommodation, rents, energy prices and now all sorts of other rising costs of living. What absolutely infuriat…

-----to controlling and cutting the rents being charged by landlords, and to controlling and cutting the price of energy using the powers available to the Government?

That is a rare win.

The minimum wage in this country gives people just over €400 a week. Does the Tánaiste honestly believe that is adequate to meet the cost of living? That is a joke. Maybe he is going to surprise me and say the minimum wage is going to be increased to €12.90, the living wage, or, even better, the rate we are proposing - €15, but I know he is not going to say that or do that. At the same time, the Tánaiste has nothing to say about the profiteering of the landlords or the energy companies. There is no response on that…

And the ESB and Energia.

How come the ESB is making such large profits?

The Government does not have the guts to stand up publicly and argue with us or oppose what we asking for here, which is an emergency review of the minimum wage. In our view, there is a need to increase it to, as an absolute minimum, €15 per hour. The Government is going to accept our motion but with absolutely no intention of acting on it. The public out there should know that this is the cynical way in which politics operates in here and the way this Government behaves. The Government is spineless. Behind the sce…

The Daft report showing annual rent increases of 10% for the past year demonstrates the utter failure of the Government's rent control measures. Earlier, I heard the Taoiseach ask whether Opposition Deputies had any solutions. Uniquely we have repeatedly argued for actual rent controls where we set rents. A transition year school student, Shyanne, is doing her work placement in my office this week. I asked her to see if she could find any rent control regimes anywhere else that might work here so that we could perh…

They are not working.

Does the Taoiseach think rents will come down with all this supply?

Does the Taoiseach think rents will come down?

That is not the question.

He should know; he arms quite a few of them.

Look at Hungary.