I thank the Ceann Comhairle. Time is pretty much up for this Government. When Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael’s alliance started they were the Civil War parties, but now it seems they are more like the phoney war parties. For weeks there has been sniping in the media. It is not about policy, because it does not seem like there are many policy differences between them, but about personalities. Political debate has been reduced to petty insults and desperate jostling for position in advance of an election. It is a fairly ridiculous end to what has been a disastrous Government for so many people. There are hundreds and thousands of people out there who have lost hope in a better future here and who are utterly disconnected from the success story this Government is trying to spin. Instead, the Government should be talking about the 500,000 adults living in their childhood bedrooms and how to address that. How does the Taoiseach think they feel when, for example, they hear the Tánaiste say we have turned a corner on housing? They do not see a corner but a dead end. They see their ability to build a life and put down roots in their communities destroyed by disastrous housing policies. Average house price increases of €85,000 in just four years are not a success. For individuals and families desperate to own their own homes, it is a betrayal.

Disabled people have also been let down. When this Government took office it said disability was a priority. When the Taoiseach assumed his role he even set up a new Cabinet subcommittee to focus on this issue. What has it achieved? Nothing. Services are worse than they were when this Government took office. People no longer even have any kind of expectation they will get the critical supports they need. They have learned by experience the only things they are guaranteed from the State are waiting lists and excuses, yet its members somehow still claim disability was a priority for this Government. This is why the Social Democrats are making a full Minister for disability a dealbreaker in any programme for Government talks. We need the political weight of a Ministry and the political will that has so blatantly been missing for so long. Until that happens I do not believe anything will change.

I am sure that during this election campaign, the Taoiseach will insist his plans in housing, disability and a whole range of other areas are working or that somehow they will start working and that all that is needed is a bit more time, a few more years, and we will begin to see the results. However, we have been listening to the same lines from Fine Gael for nearly 14 years. Fine Gael has been in office for almost my entire adult life and the Taoiseach has been a Minister for most of that time. The party has had more than enough time and more than enough money to address these issues and it has not. Why should anybody believe Fine Gael will solve the crises facing the country when it is Fine Gael policy that has led us to them?

I would never age a colleague, but I do not think there is that big a difference in our ages so I am not sure how I have been a Government Minister almost all the Deputy's adult life. Leaving that aside, she likes to portray this Government's record in a certain way. That is fine, it is her job and I look forward to debating that on the campaign trail. This is the Government that steered the country through Covid, steered the country through the biggest inflationary crisis, created jobs for people, has been able to give people back some of their own money including additional child benefit payments as recently as this week, and has been able to take a range of measures that have made children's and parents' lives better. These include the roll-out of free schoolbooks and hot school meals. Now that the risk of a transatlantic trade shock is rising, we have managed to set aside resources to ensure my children never have to live through the austerity our generation did, so I am proud of much of the progress we made.

Moreover, when it comes to moving people out of their childhood bedroom, 50,000 people have been able to avail of the help to buy scheme. That is a scheme I do not think the Social Democrats support, meaning they would pull the rug from under first-time buyers.

The Deputy asked a very direct question, namely what difference has been made since I decided to chair the Cabinet committee on disability. I will tell her four things. The first is we have ratified the optional protocol to the UN convention, which is something she feels strongly about. We got it done. Second, we have managed to adopt a proposal from the Labour Party on assessments of need and utilising private capacity to ensure more than 1,000 additional children got assessments of need they would not have got otherwise this summer. That happened. They are real children and those benefits have happened as a result of our work together. Third, we have managed to start the process of putting therapists back in special schools. That work is under way and is making a real difference. It is not saying to a parent of a child with special needs they must go from the school to a health waiting list, but actually putting therapists in the schools. We will continue to roll that out. Fourth, under that Cabinet committee on disability, we have worked across Departments to expand the number of training places in Irish universities to ensure we train enough people to work in speech and language therapy, physiotherapy and occupational therapy. No matter who is in government or what the Department is called, we need more people to be able to work in this area.

The Deputy’s suggestion of a dedicated stand-alone Minister for disability has merit. The only counterpoint to make is that work somewhat started this time with the Minister, Deputy O’Gorman, and then we had a migration crisis and the likes of that as well, in terms of the breadth of issues that Department is now dealing with. The Social Democrats’ suggestion about a stand-alone Minister for disability is a constructive, sensible one, but I would like to see how we would make that Department work to cut through the silos and deliver for people with disabilities.

The thing that is difficult for me to believe or that I do not really buy or that, to be honest, is not really credible is that somebody who was the Minister for Health with responsibility for disability when nothing improved and things got worse then comes in as Taoiseach and sets up a Cabinet subcommittee when we have already had loads of committees and reports and know all the things we need to do. Then, when he is pointing at things that have happened, he says now we are offering more private solutions rather than investing in the public services we need to address disability services. It is brazen to claim that somehow Fine Gael or the Taoiseach is going to be the solution to these issues without acknowledging that things have got worse, that people cannot access special education, that people are travelling potentially two and a half hours and not being able to go to school at all. It seems the Taoiseach thinks the threadbare services are some kind of a given, when Ireland is a rich country that should be able to provide these services. Fine Gael has had a really long time to try to address that and the Taoiseach has not even acknowledged that. I hope people see through the fact this is a tried, tested and failed Government on this issue and on housing.

I thank the Deputy.

The Taoiseach can have all the new energy in the world but without any new ideas, nothing is going to change. I think we are all hearing it on the doors that some people feel despondent and feel like there is no other choice.

I thank the Deputy.

This election is about choices, and we can choose differently. We can choose to vote for parties that will invest in public services and not splash the cash around in a giveaway budget to try to buy an election. There are parties that will invest in services like these and I hope people will use their choice.

I hope Deputy Cairns tells those people on the doors which of these splashing of the cash payments she would like to cancel. I invited her the last time to email me on this and she has not.

A one-off payment will evaporate quickly.

Please, you do not need to heckle. The Deputy could listen, and I listened-----

The energy credits for holiday homes.

Please, Deputy Cairns.

I listened to Deputy Cairns. I presume when she talks about splashing the cash, the Deputy is in favour of the double child benefit payment. I presume she would not begrudge someone the additional old age pension this month and again before Christmas. I presume she would not stop the fuel allowance payments or the lump sum payments for carers or people with a disability or the working family payment. When the Deputy talks about splashing the cash, I talk about giving people back a bit of their own money to help them because this country's economy is run well.

I look forward to having a debate but the Deputy does not need to lecture me. I know my lived experience. I know exactly what it is like to have to fight every single day for a service. I know exactly what it is like to watch my mother have to get in a car and drive for two hours to get my brother to school. I do not need a lecture from her on what the lived experience is like. I also do not need to suggest that any one human being can fix this. We must work together on this. I stood up and said the Deputy had a good idea regarding disability and I said I would work with her on that. The disappointing thing is all she wanted to do was slag me off.