Everyone has their own part to play in this. No part is too great or too small. No one is too old or too young. People will see that the Government has again failed to play its part in this budget. Yes, some people have been given back some of their own hard-earned money. We see people who have benefited at the cost of people who have not, but too much of people’s money continues to be squandered. Too much of people's hard-earned money continues to be wasted. Too much has been spent on layers and layers of bureaucr…

The Taoiseach has changed his position.

When will the Taoiseach address the chronic shortage of GPs in rural Ireland? We have a situation in Lahardaun whereby the whole parish of approximately 1,000 people is left without GP services, with people being told to look to the nearest town. That is not acceptable. In Achill, more than €1 million has been spent on temporary locum cover. Money is being wasted and people are being deprived of an absolutely essential service, namely, a relationship with their GP, because of the inaction of the Government. Will th…

Today we heard from Disability Federation Ireland around the crisis that is looming of the section 39----

Disability Federation Ireland expressed concern today around 17 October, when section 39 workers have been forced to take industrial action and the impact this would have on the essential services they provide. I thank all the people who travelled from Mayo today to get their message across around poverty and disability and the impact of them. In particular, I was really struck by the fact they said that on 17 October we cannot have people lying in bed not able to get up. There are thousands of section 39 organisat…

As things stand, many homeowners affected by defective concrete blocks are unable to access working capital loans from the banks to start the remedial works on their houses. Aside from the well-documented shortcomings of the scheme, such people simply cannot afford to access it. They need invoices for €100,000 of completed work to have grant funding released by the local authorities under the redress scheme. Having met today with representatives of the Banking Payments Federation of Ireland, BPFI, I welcome their p…

Deputy O'Reilly is to come. She will probably be here, but if she is not I will continue on. Sinn Féin and I, and my colleague, Deputy O'Rourke, have been warning this Government since October 2021 – two years ago – that our electricity pricing system was broken and that high gas prices were leading to skyrocketing prices for wind energy companies. At each stage, the responses from various Ministers were dismissive and often condescending. At the same time, the Government was blocking proposed reforms at EU level. …

For months, we have been asking the Minister to do the right thing by homeowners. These are the same homeowners who Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael purport to support and hold in high regard. As each month goes by, people realise that these are just empty words and that lip service is being paid to these struggling mortgage holders, who cannot afford to continue with the crippling rates they are being charged, the ten interest rate rises they have had to experience and the significant income shock. Fianna Fáil and Fine G…

This morning, I spoke to nurses about their pre-budget submission. Not only were safe staffing levels and the need for legislation raised as being necessary, but they told me of nurses being forced to live hours away from their places of work, being exhausted going home at night, barely existing while paying enormous rents, never having a hope of owning their own homes, and more and more emigrating to Australia. What is the Taoiseach’s answer to these nurses?

People in Mayo will be really worried when they hear that the Minister of State and the Government are not finished yet, honest to God, because what he read out bears no relation to what I and my staff deal with every day in Mayo. The average price of a home in Mayo has increased by €10,000 since last year. People are desperately trying to save enough money to buy a secure home in a cost-of-living crisis, but they are watching as the goalposts move further and further away. At the same time, they are being squeezed…

I thank the Chair for allowing me in. I want to speak on this subject. I welcome what has been said, and I hope it means foster carers will be eligible for pensions after this. It needs to happen as soon as possible. I met a group of foster carers in County Mayo on Monday, and what they told me was quite shocking, particularly with regard to foster carers looking after children with complex needs. They do not want to have to give up on those children, but they are fighting to try to get the different services and s…

I think the key to all of this is that the Departments interlink and work together to look at these families in a holistic manner. Some of the foster parents I have spoken to are being forced to go back to work, because there are gaps in their payments that will not ensure them a pension in the future. If it can be brought together in a holistic manner, that would be good.

This is my real question. The public service performance report made for stark reading. It shows an alarming rise in the number of retired people at risk of poverty in 2022. It is deeply concerning that one in five retired people is now at risk of poverty. What new actions is the Minister taking to address this alarming increase in the number of older and retired people at risk of poverty?

It seems the Minister is refuting these figures but-----

-----the percentage of older and retired people at risk of poverty has gone from 11.9% to 19.1%, as of last week. Pre-pandemic, one in ten retired people was at risk of poverty. In 2022, this spiked to one in every five people. I do not think we can ignore these figures. I know statistics mean statistics but at the end of the day, we have elderly people who are struggling. There were a number of once-off payments but many of these did not kick in until January, so people had to go through the winter months without …

If those payments were not provided, the figures would be even starker. The Minister cited a figure of €44 weekly but she knows what it takes when people do their shopping, pay extra medical expenses and everything else that goes with the rising cost of living and inflation. The Government this week published the summer economic statement, which states on the first page that there was "little, if any, evidence of [economic] ‘scarring’ from [recent] shocks". I would call record waiting lists and homelessness deep sc…

I again welcome Aaron. Yesterday, the Government finally published the defective concrete block scheme. Despite a clear promise the updated scheme would open by the end of 2022, it has taken the Government a full year to get the scheme up and running. I am still reviewing the details of the regulations but I am concerned it will still leave many people behind. Changes to the scheme will provide much-needed relief for some of those affected, but I believe it will leave many homeowners and tenants in Mayo behind. Doe…

The Taoiseach is not answering the questions.

On 20 April, I asked the Minister's Department to provide me with details on all consultant contracts of public bodies, and that included RTÉ. Unlike other Departments, however, because I have been putting these questions to everybody, the Department refused to provide that information as it did not see it as the Minister's responsibility to have that level of oversight. That is a mistake. We need to look at not having that level of oversight and at how we bring that accountability to the House. RTÉ receives most o…

I commend the A5 Enough is Enough campaign. I thank my colleague, Deputy Doherty, for ensuring we had the opportunity to hear Niall McKenna, Brendan Hurl, Plunkett Nugent, Peter Canavan and, above all, Kate Corrigan today. One of my colleagues said earlier that Kate's was one of the most moving contributions they had ever heard in the audiovisual room. Kate heartbreaking words as she spoke about her beloved son Nathan were profound and unforgettable. Nathan and his friends Peter Finnegan and Peter McNamee are no lo…