Níl dabht ar bith ach go bhfuil an ghéarchéim sa chostas maireachtála ag tiomáint níos mó agus níos mó teaghlach go dtí pointe na bochtaineachta, agus nár oibrigh an méid atá déanta ag an Rialtas go dtí seo. Tá rudaí ag dul ó olc go holc agus tá daoine ag streachailt chun íoc as earraí riachtanacha. Tá sé in am do cháinaisnéis éigeandála, a chuirfidh airgead ar ais i bpócaí gnáthdhaoine na tíre seo. The soaring cost of living now has many workers and families at breaking point. On radio this morning we heard testimonies from people who face heartbreaking choices to make it to the end of the week. We heard about families having to go without breakfast, children going without cereal. We heard of a mother talk of her child, saying he has a hole in his shoe and having to tell him he will have to wait for another pair. Parents spoke of the pressure they feel when their children come home and tell them they are going on a school tour. A child going on a school tour should not be a household crisis, but it is for too many. But this is now the hard experience of so many people.

The cost-of-living crisis is pushing more and more people to the edge of poverty. Food poverty is now a feature of life for an ever-growing number of children. The growing need for foodbanks is a stark testament to this reality right across the State. A foodbank in the midlands is now feeding up to 5,000 people and it expects that figure to rise to 15,000 over the next period. Those who never thought they would need such help are now standing in queues waiting to be fed by charities. People are working long hours, and the soaring costs mean that they simply cannot get by. It is soul-destroying.

As families keep an eye to every euro they spend, yesterday the Taoiseach told them to prepare for a rocky road ahead, to be ready for a new era of high fuel and energy costs. This is astonishing because workers and families have been walking the rocky road of extortionate fuel and energy costs for the best part of a year now. To tell people, as he did, who are already struggling to pay their bills that they will have to tighten their belts even further is painfully out of touch, while at the same time ruling out from him as Taoiseach further Government action until October at the very earliest. Does this Government understand the pressure that real families and workers are under right across the State? We are talking about households who have to deal with rip-off rents, food prices that are increasing sharply, big energy bills and childcare fees that cost a second mortgage for many. People cannot catch their breath. They cannot catch a break. Many are having to choose between having lunch or filling the car to go to work, and now prices at the pumps are shooting up once again.

The Government's approach to this crisis has failed. It has been piecemeal, slow and sluggish and its measures have not made a dent in the costs people face. So now is the time for a real and comprehensive plan of action. We need a mini budget right now aimed at getting costs down right across the board. There is room within the public finances for the Government to act, and it is not just me and Sinn Féin saying that. That is also the view of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council and also the view of the Central Bank, so you need to listen. You need to listen to what families have been saying on "Morning Ireland" this morning, families who are coming to all our constituency offices. They are telling you loud and clear, they cannot hang on for another five months. The Taoiseach and his Government need to understand where people are at. They need to do what is necessary and to bring forward a mini budget to deal with this crisis.

An rud is tábhachtaí, ar mo shon féin agus do gach éinne sa Teach seo, ná an fhírinne a thabhairt don tír go hiomlán agus a insint do mhuintir na tíre agus a bheith macánta leo. Is é sin a dheineas inné. It should not be astonishing, as he has said, to tell the truth. What I said yesterday was telling the truth about a new era of an increase in pricing around fossil fuels. The reason for that is that this week we will mark the grim milestone of 100 days since Russia's unjustified, illegal and immoral invasion of Ukraine. That invasion has brought untold misery, death and human suffering. Almost 6 million Ukrainian people, half of them children, have been put on the road, have had to flee their country, and have been forced to try to find sanctuary where they can get it, equivalent to the entire population of this country. That invasion has brought that suffering but it also has brought extraordinary economic cost and disruption with it. The Deputy did not refer to it at all in his contribution, which was wrong of him because we need to be honest with people. This war is having a terrible impact on the world, primarily in terms of the deaths of so many Ukrainians and the terrible trauma they are experiencing, but also bringing about huge economic cost and disruption, triggering a massive spike in the cost of energy, and with a huge increase in the cost of a vast range of other materials, affecting food and agriculture in terms of fertiliser and so on, which all input into our society and economic system, and also, most devastating of all, it is causing and will continue to cause a major food security crisis.

Yesterday the European Union spoke to the President of the African Union, which is extremely concerned about the impacts of this war on famine or the prospects of creating a really significant famine. The Russian ambassador and the Russian President would have us all believe that this is the fault of western governments, and we need to be careful that we do not fall into the Putin trap of laying all the blame domestically because he wants western states to buckle under the pressure that he deliberately and premeditatedly created. Putin wanted to create an energy crisis, he wants to create a food crisis and he wanted to create a migration crisis, all part of the one immoral and unjustifiable war. That is why we have very significant manifestation of that in the form of high energy prices for our people, putting many people under pressure. I do not dispute that; people are under a lot of pressure because of this and because of the deliberate policies of the Putin regime. To be fair to the Irish people, they have responded magnificently in how they have brought in and worked, through communities and volunteerism, with Ukrainians across the country.

The Deputy said earlier that the Government has been slow, tardy. It has not, actually. It has allocated since last October €2.5 billion to cost-of-living issues in terms of cutting taxes and increasing welfare rates. We have increased the fuel allowance rate, for example, by about 55%, a €404 increase from 2021 to 2022. We have reduced excise duty on petrol, diesel and green diesel, about €9 and €12 each time people fill their tank-----

Tá an t-am istigh.

-----and we have reduced VAT and so on.

The Government has responded already to the cost-of-living crisis, more than it would in a normal budget, but it is very severe on people. We need to be-----

The time is up.

We will develop a collective response to deal with it.

The Taoiseach is not a commentator. We all know the external factors that are pushing up prices. They have been referenced many times before, but that does not absolve him as Taoiseach or the Government from acting and doing everything in their power to protect households and families here. Households are struggling to make it to the end of the week and the Taoiseach is telling them that they have to tighten their belt and that as the leader of this Government, he is not going to intervene with any single further measure until at least October, at the very earliest. That is testament of a Taoiseach and a Government who are so far out of touch we could not make it up. Forget about what we are saying, the Government should listen to what ordinary people are saying. People are going in their thousands to food banks. Many households cannot put food on the table. They are making seriously difficult choices about going from A to B - getting to work, going for a hospital appointment or feeding their children with a bowl of cereal in the morning. The Taoiseach stands there and says he is not going to intervene for another five months at the earliest. We know the Government cannot do everything but it needs to do more. It needs to bring forward a mini budget-----

I thank the Deputy. The time is up.

-----and at least to look at the proposals that we brought forward, and it needs to support workers and families in these extraordinary times.

Deputy Doherty did not once refer to the cause of the crisis in his original contribution to this House, which we all know, because his objective is to lay all of the blame on the Government, just like the Russian ambassador did yesterday. The aim is to blame the government of the day.

The key point is that we have taken a lot of measures, which Deputy Doherty has ignored and has decided not to acknowledge. I referenced some of them. We have cut public transport fares by 20%, and fares for young people by 50%. We have lowered the threshold for the drug payment scheme to €80 per month, benefitting more than 17,000 families. We have brought forward a working-family payment budget increase. We abolished inpatient hospital charges for children. We capped annual rent increases at 2%. We also introduced significant supports for the different sectors of the economy affected by the very significant prices. I refer to hauliers, grain farmers and pig farmers, among others, who are affected. In addition, we have launched a significant national retrofitting scheme.

The time is up.

The cutting of tax and the increases in social protection matter. We want to now explore with the social partners how we deal with this in a comprehensive, strategic way. The one thing we cannot do, which the Deputy wants to do-----

The time is up.

You cannot chase inflation away month after month by €1 billion or €2 billion a month. That is not a sustainable pathway.

We are way over time.

What the Deputy is proposing is to create even further inflation over and above what is there-----

What I am proposing is that the Taoiseach should sit down. He is embarrassing himself.

Members should please not interrupt.

-----all with a view to pursuing electoral advantage over a crisis that has been caused by a brutal regime.

Could we have order please?

We support the people who are queuing at food banks. What about that for an idea?

Deputy Doherty should please not interrupt. He has asked his question.