Instead of investing in long-term sustainable supports in the budget, the Government splashed cash on temporary measures. Today we learned the dates that those ten payments will be made. Most of them will be made before 22 November and the remainder will be made by early December. The Government parties are cock-a-hoop with that schedule because it is right around when most of us expect to be going to the polls. Their glee will be short-lived because bribery is a bad look. Has there ever been a more blatant attempt to buy an election? While these payments will certainly be welcome, they will not last very long, and by the new year, they will be long gone.

What supports will be available to people as prices continue to rise? Very few. That is why the analysis of the budget by the ESRI was so scathing. It stated the budget will push older and disabled people into poverty. I doubt we will see that damning verdict on any Fine Gael election posters but it is the reality. The ESRI has also stated the Government's budget will not reduce the child poverty rate, despite the Taoiseach and his predecessor stating this was a priority.

We all know that, for this Government, talk is cheap. The truth is other priorities took precedence, namely, spraying money around indiscriminately in the hope of buying an election. Where was the vision in this budget? Where was the ambition to fix the really big problems we are facing as a country? The Government had a record surplus at its disposal and all it managed to do was to tinker around the edges. Where was the plan to deliver thousands of affordable homes or a public model of childcare that is accessible and affordable for parents? Where are the quality disability services that children can access when they need them? The Government did nothing to tackle the huge waiting lists in our health service. All of that was absent. The failure to target resources and spend money wisely is why people are so outraged by the €9 million for phone pouches. It has become a lightning rod for public anger because it is emblematic of this Government's default approach of spin over substance. The Taoiseach says that he cares about mental health and yet he has provided almost four times as much money for phone pouches than for additional staffing for child and adolescent mental health teams.

Does the Taoiseach agree with the ESRI that vulnerable people will be worse off because of the budget? How can he defend a budget that lacked any real ambition to make lasting improvements to the country?

I would love to know which of the cost-of-living payments that will be paid to people in all of our constituencies between now and Christmas the Deputy would like us to cancel. If he would let me know, I would like to hear those proposals. Does he want me to stop the double child benefit payment in the first week of November? Does he want me to stop the double child benefit payment in the first week of December? Does he want me to stop the €300 fuel allowance payment? Does he want me to stop the double payment to carers in October, which we have just discussed? There will be another double payment at Christmas. Does he want me to stop the living alone allowance payment? Does he want me to cancel the energy credits? It is easy to come into the House in a large way and make statements. Perhaps he could tell me, when he rises to his feet, which of the cost-of-living payments this Government is providing with taxpayers' money to his constituents that the Deputy's constituents do not want.

We will be very happy to reflect on that. From travelling around this country, my experience has been that while inflation is falling and the economy is going well, but right around the dinner table tonight, people in the here and now are saying, "I am sick and tired of people on the radio telling me the economy is going well. I am still struggling to pay my bills. When I take the trolley around the supermarket, the cost is still large." I make no apology for giving people a little bit of their own money back in the here and now. If people do not like that - Deputy Shortall can scoff if she wants. She, too, can tell me which ones she is against because I am fed up of this sneering and scoffing.

Your cynicism knows no bounds.

Tell me which of the payments you do not want, please, and let me know. Any other Opposition parties can email me at simon.harris@oireachtas.ie and let me know me what payments they do not want. I would really like to hear from them in relation to that.

I stand by every single decision we made in the budget last week. This was a budget that did a number of things. It provided a cost-of-living package in the here and now – more than €2 billion of people's own money – quite rightly. It is not bribery. It is called listening to people and delivering. It is called acting on what they said: "Give us a little bit of help, Simon. Help us now." That is what we did.

It also sets aside money for infrastructure - €1.2 billion more for the Land Development Agency. Some parties want to abolish that. We are putting more money into building houses. There is €1 billion more for water. That will certainly help water schemes in my constituency, and in many constituencies throughout the country. There is €750 million more for the grid.

There will be a number of initiatives in 2025, including extra funding for disability and mental health. The budget was also a record one for justice, health and education. Holiday hunger was also included in the budget. There is a recognition from the Government that the kids who get school meals might also be hungry when the school is closed during the summer. We extended the free schoolbooks scheme so the Deputy's constituents will never again have to pay for schoolbooks from when their child starts in junior infants until they finish the leaving certificate.

There is clearly a real policy difference between us on this. I do not believe at all, despite the manufactured efforts at faux outrage, that the people have bought into this thing about the pouches at all, in terms of how the Deputy is putting it. We delivered a budget of more than €105 billion. As part of that, we are giving every kid €20 for a phone pouch, if they want it. If they do not want it, they do not have to have it.