Workers and families now face the biggest squeeze on household income for a decade. People are being ripped off at every turn. The price of fuel has hit new record highs - up 11% in just two weeks. In some parts of the country, this means petrol prices have hit €2.30 a litre. I accept that there are international factors at play in this but it is clear to us that we need an emergency budget and that people simply cannot wait until October. We need actions immediately to get the cost of fuel down and, therefore, I ask the Taoiseach to do two things. First, I ask the Taoiseach to reduce the excise duty applied to petrol and diesel by the maximum level, which would bring prices of petrol down by 13 cent and those of diesel by 9 cent. That, alone, will not be enough. I ask that the Taoiseach engage with the EU Commission to seek out further reductions in VAT and, indeed, in excise. I ask that that engagement happen as a matter of urgency. We should not have to come in and put this to the Taoiseach for months, as was the case last year on these matters.

First, as I have said, the cost of living is bearing down very heavily on people. We are acutely aware of that in government and we have brought in approximately €2.4 billion of measures already.

As I stated earlier, we cannot chase inflation like we did in the 1970s, when we had a decade-long inflationary cycle that went out of control and undermined people's real incomes, jobs etc. The forthcoming budget will be a cost-of-living budget. We want to do things that target those in need but also deal with a range of issues that also support the economy and jobs and gives us an overall 12-month framework to deal with this issue and take on board the views of the social partners as well in respect of strategic issues that impact on the cost to people, from childcare to housing, and pay and the inflation issues arising also.

I take it that is a "No".