Get rid of the thresholds.

In my area, if you find yourself having to rent a place, you are, by definition, in a housing crisis unless you are very rich. The average rents are €2,200 per month. To be honest, you would be lucky to find a place for that and rents continue to rise. Let us think about that. You would need after-tax income of €26,000 to pay the average rent in my area. That is completely unaffordable for the vast majority of people. Someone on average industrial earnings would have a bit under €30,000 left after tax and might hav…

The Tánaiste mentioned empathy earlier. Will his Government extend a bit of empathy to families that are in homeless accommodation for years on end? I raise this matter because I am currently dealing with two cases where there is a distinct lack of empathy being shown. As I understand it, this is at least significantly to do with Government policy. In one case, a family of eight, including a disabled mother, a father and six children, three of whom are in college, have been in homeless accommodation for six years. …

What empathy will the Government show those families?

Owen Keegan showed utter contempt for students and the crisis they face with accommodation costs. I put it to the Minister that the Government has not been far off in its contempt due to its failure to address the student poverty crisis and the cost of student accommodation. There are no measures whatsoever in the budget to deal with the extortionate cost of accommodation and the student accommodation crisis, and nothing about reducing the student contribution charge.

The student grants have not gone up for nearly a decade so the small patch-up we saw in the budget yesterday does not go anywhere near dealing with the cost of living and, in particular, the accommodation cost hikes we have seen. In three months alone this summer in Dublin there was a 5.6% rise in rents. That was on top of an almost 5% increase the year before. Average rents in Dublin are running at about €2,000 per month and then there is the issue of fees. The Union of Students in Ireland, ourselves and others ha…

The Government gave €63 million to KBC Bank Ireland and Ulster Bank yesterday as a goodbye present as they exit the Irish market, so I ask the Minister not to tell me about the €60 million, which is less than that, which the Government gave to students. Students will be outside Dublin City Council today and I will be speaking to them, as will other Members. You need only talk to students to determine why they are on the streets. The issue of student accommodation was not an acute crisis ten years ago the way it is …

This morning, the Tánaiste said that most people in this country will be better off after yesterday's budget and the Taoiseach has more or less reiterated that myth. It is critical to puncture that myth and get across the truth about what happened in yesterday's budget. Using even the most elementary arithmetic, looking at the details of the budget will show that is not true. The Minister, Deputy Donohoe, pointed out that inflation is running at 3.7%. The Tánaiste actually got the figure wrong this morning and said…

We have a different view about how to deal with rents than some of the other Opposition parties. We believe we should control rents, as is done in other countries, and set rents at affordable levels based on people's income and the size of the property, not refunds or things that will inflate the market, but actual rent controls. I go back to the example of Mairéad. Based on average Dublin rents, Mairéad is paying between €18,000 and €24,000 a year in rent after tax on her income of €30,000. It is similar for Roan …

We are but it must be genuinely affordable.

We opposed the selling of public lands.

There was lots of supply during the Celtic tiger.

Unaffordable supply is not useful to Roan and Nicole.

We should have a referendum on it.

I will repeat a point that Deputy Barry made and I also made earlier. It is amazing there is not more scrutiny of the simple fact the Minister told us yesterday that inflation is running at 3.7% and yet, as I highlighted earlier, somebody who is on the average industrial wage of €40,000 a year is getting, as a result of the tax changes the Government has brought in, less than 0.5% in increased net income. That amounts to €115 for the entire year. That does not reach the threshold of national fiver day. If you do th…

The senior Ministers who delivered the budget have scuttled off. We did them the courtesy of listening to their diatribe of propaganda to justify their budget, but they could not do us the courtesy of listening to our response. That says everything about this Government because it does not listen. The people will not be fooled by this budget. Despite all the leaked strategy, all the spin and all the interviews where no doubt Government Members are trying to sell this budget, the people will not be fooled. The truth…

It is not agreed. It is totally inappropriate that a Financial Resolution on the Maritime Area Planning Bill is being taken this evening. It is nothing to do with the budget. It is to do with the Maritime Area Planning Bill, which is a very controversial Bill. It should not have been taken today; it should be taken tomorrow. That would be the best time to do it. The Bill will go to Committee Stage next week and there should be time for a discussion on it because it is to do with licences for, I understand, maritime…

Will I trust the Government?

We will let it pass this time.

Smoking is bad for you and it would be best that people did not smoke and that we did things to discourage them from smoking but punishing people financially for an addiction is not the way forward and is overwhelmingly a regressive form of taxation in that it disproportionately hits the less well-off. I also strongly doubt the Government will, certainly through this mechanism, get to a tobacco-free Ireland, but - and this is happening on a widespread basis already - those who continue to smoke will source cigarett…