The Minister will be well aware that in our alternative budget last year we argued that energy credits of €450 should be brought forward. The Government brought forward energy credits of €250. The Minister listed off various measures. As I said earlier, I am not taking away from those measures but what I am telling him is that things have got worse. The reality is that regardless of whether he believes he has protected people, there are more households than ever before - over 300,000 - that cannot pay their electricity bills. Regardless of what the Government did last year, things have got worse. The crisis has deepened and two things are about to happen. First, nearly 1 million households are going to see electricity prices go up, on average, by 10% in the next two weeks. Second, the Government and the Minister for Finance are going to withdraw the energy credits that those households were dependent on for the last three years. What I am saying to the Minister is that he should deal with the reality. The fact is that people are drowning under a cost-of-living crisis. Things have got worse in the last year - that is just a fact - and they are about to get even worse again because of two measures. One is the electricity companies ripping people off and gouging them again and the other is the Minister's decision to cancel electricity credits in this year's budget.

I gave Deputy Doherty the opportunity to confirm or at least explain to the House whether Sinn Féin is still making the case for an energy price cap, which it did in the last Dáil. I notice that he did not answer that question.

It did not work out so well for them over in Britain.

Indeed. In relation to the matters that Deputy Doherty has just raised, we are well aware of the challenge that the cost of living is posing for so many. I would make the point that for every budget I have brought into this House, he has always criticised me for not spending enough. He has always criticised us for running budget surpluses. If we had taken his approach in recent years, we would not have had the ability to intervene and help as we did in the last two years, let alone the ability to help again. The Government, for example, will be able to make a decision in relation to the VAT on gas and electricity which will play a role in maintaining the support that is available. That is a decision that will be considered in the context of the budget. We know that it is demanding for so many at the moment and what we want to do is bring forward measures that are targeted and that we are confident we can sustain in the time ahead.