I want to begin by expressing my sympathies and those of my party to all the family and those who loved Eugene Nudie Hughes, the Monaghan football legend who crushed the hopes of many who played against him and gave joy to so many people who love our Gaelic games. He is being laid to rest today. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.

Tá gnáthdhaoine ag streachailt le billí móra agus iad ag feiceáil na tosaíochtaí atá ag an Rialtas agus ag cur ceiste orthu féin cá háit a bhfuil an cothrom na Féinne. Níl fadhb ar bith ag Fianna Fáil agus ag Fine Gael margadh deas a shocrú dóibh siúd ag barr an dréimire, ach diúltaíonn siad cuidiú le gnáth-theaghlaigh atá faoi bhrú agus atá ag streachailt.

The cost-of-living crisis is completely out of control. It is getting worse by the day. It is putting people under massive pressure. We have constant price hikes and ever-increasing bills. It means working households, even those with two incomes, are really struggling to keep up now. They are squeezed from all angles. It is price hike after price hike, bill after bill and people cannot catch their breath. They are living in stress at thought of the car or the washing machine breaking down - that wee one unforeseen expense tipping them over the edge - and you sit there and you do nothing. Last month, you delivered a budget of €9.4 billion that left people worse off. It was a budget with no cost-of-living package, where you broke your promise of tax breaks for workers. It was littered with cushy tax breaks for top-brass executives, developers and landlords. You left working people behind and you chose to look after those at the top at the expense of everyone else. Your priorities are right here to be seen in your finance Bill. While you could not find the money for cost-of-living supports, here is what you did find the money for - a tax cut of €105,000 for the highest-earning executives, 99 of whom already earn over €1 million, and 19 of whom earn over €3 million; a tax reduction of €320,000 but you only get that if your pension pot is already €2 million and more; and measures that allow developers to make millions of euro of profits building apartments and not having to pay a penny in tax on those profits. You are pouring money into the pockets of those who are already flush while ordinary workers have to watch every euro as they are hit by massive electricity bills, sky-high food prices, rip-off insurance costs and out-of-control rents. There is no end in sight for families out there.

You guys talk about a magic money tree when dismissing the calls to help households. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have a big fat magic money tree and its leaves are evergreen when it comes to looking after the big boys. You have no problem there and ordinary people see it. You took away their energy credits; you took away the double child benefit payment; you hiked up student fees despite the fact that you promised you would reduce them; you increased the cost of petrol, diesel and toll roads; you jacked up the local property tax; and you provided no extra help for renters but a nice increase for landlords. That is where your priorities lie. None of this is fair. It is not right and you need to change course. Targeted measures are needed, of course, but this cost-of-living crisis has got so out of control that measures that are targeted are no longer enough. We need far more than that. The truth is households which would have been fine just a couple of years ago and would have been getting by all right are now in desperate situations. They are drowning in bills and your Government simply does not acknowledge that. I ask you this: has the penny dropped? Did you hear from people when you were knocking on the doors during the presidential campaign - although we heard you did not do much of that - that they are really struggling, very frustrated and annoyed you have chosen to make them worse off in this budget while you protect the incomes of people at the very top who are already flush?

Hear, hear.

I did a fair bit of it in your own constituency. It was good to be in Donegal. The Deputy persists in trying to misrepresent the budget. Week in week out, he comes in here and says that €9.4 billion more is being spent etc. and then he tries to pivot to suggest it is all being spent in a certain direction. He ignores the fact and does not tell people at home that the bulk of that money went to increasing public services. I presume he agrees with the very significant increase - hundreds of millions of euro extra - in funding for disability services that came out of that pot to which he referred. I presume he agrees with the very significant increase in the education budget, including for capitation fees and special education, all the extra funding to our health service and the largest ever social protection budget, including measures for carers and a major expansion in fuel allowance increases for pensioners. To be honest, I am not sure any more whether he agrees with measures we took to try to help the hospitality sectors in towns and villages in Donegal and across this country. They said to us that their cost base was too high and that was having a real impact on them in keeping the doors open, in servicing the tourism sector, which is such an important part of our economy, and in keeping people in employment. That is a whistle-stop tour of where a lot of the money went in this budget.

The Deputy is making a constant effort to misrepresent and mislead the Irish people on the measures we took in relation to housing supply, but they are the right measures. We took a decision to reduce the cost of building an apartment to help to make sure more apartments are built. This week, there was an Oireachtas housing committee meeting. I am not sure if the Deputy has seen it. If he has not, I am sure Deputy Ó Broin will fill him in. Person after person who has responsibility for building apartments came in and said this will make a real difference and will mean we can build more homes for young people to buy and rent.

You would not expect developers to say anything else, would you?

You would have heard directly from Cairn Homes, which said in The Irish Times, "The better news is that the recent VAT cut gets passed on directly to the end user here." He would also have heard from Fitzpatrick and Heavey Homes which said, "Apartments are now viable again" and it will lead to a building boom.

But they are only at 50% capacity. I was at the meeting.

You are not yet the leader.

You were not at the meeting.

You would have heard from Glenveagh-----

They are at 50% capacity.

Deputy Gould, please.

You would have heard from Glenveagh which said the accelerating infrastructure task force is going to make a real difference and the innovations are working. Castlethorn, which builds homes, welcomed the budgetary measure.

Thanks very much Tánaiste.

At the end of the day, the people you describe-----

Thanks very much Tánaiste.

No. The people you like to describe as elites and everything else are the people we rely on to build homes in this country. The measures we have taken are making a real difference. I do not think when you, Eoin Ó Broin and others meet these lads, you use the same sort of language towards them as you use in this Dáil. The lobbying register shows you are meeting most of them. I do not think when you meet them you describe them in the way you do in this House. You have also come in today, and you tried this at the finance committee yesterday, to try to suggest the measures we have taken to assist small landlords are somehow disproportionate to the measures we have taken for renters. Lest there be any doubt, the budget package we have in place to help renters, the renters' tax credit, is three times the cost to the Exchequer as the tax credit for landlords to try to keep people in the rental market.

You cannot have homes to rent if you do not have people who are willing to rent their home. Please do not continue to misrepresent the steps this Government is taking to deliver infrastructure, to deliver homes, to support jobs and, crucially, to invest more in our public services. That is what budgets are about too; making sure when somebody needs to access healthcare, education or a disability service, that we are properly and adequately resourcing it.

When people look back at this budget, which is one of five in a five-year term, they will see we have taken decisions that will make a fundamental difference to housing supply, to jobs and employment, and to protecting our country. That is what many of the people on the doors I knock on want to see from a Government too.

Hear, hear.

Tánaiste, you talk about misrepresenting and misleading. You are the star of that show; that is your film. You are the person who made a promise to workers that you would reduce their taxes this year and you have left them worse off.

I never said that.

It is in your manifesto. It says that this will happen each and every year. You are the fella who promised to parents that you would cap childcare fees within 100 days of going into government, but you broke that promise. You are the guy who promised students that you would reduce student fees. They are now paying more this year than they paid last year. You are the guy who is misrepresenting the public and is misleading the public over and over again.

Nope.

Seriously, Tánaiste, you tell us we should support these measures, which will see huge amounts of taxpayers' money go into the pockets of developers, because Cairn Homes and Glenveagh Properties told you this will work for them.

They told you.

Does you know how much profit they made last year? It is on the public record that Cairn Homes made 22% and Glenveagh made 21%. What is your response? It is to give them more money. They can now make €5 million in profit on an apartment block and pay no tax whatsoever. That is absolute nonsense. People are annoyed because you have decided to leave workers worse off.

Please conclude, Deputy.

You have decided to withdraw the energy credits. You have decided to jack up local property tax. You have decided to put up petrol and diesel. You have decided to put up student fees. People are so annoyed-----

Please resume your seat, Deputy.

-----because you have prioritised those at the top and you have royally screwed the workers you promised before the election you would look after - another promise broken.

Hear, hear.

It is kind of a single, transferable speech from you. The reality is we went to the electorate. This Government won a mandate to govern and you did not.

We went to the electorate-----

Where are the 40,000 houses you promised?

Will Deputy Gould please allow the Tánaiste to respond?

Am I allowed to speak or do I get shouted down in this House?

You were on the record saying there were 40,000 houses. Where are they?

Please, Deputy Gould.

They waste the time shouting you down. I would like my time to be protected to respond to the questions because people at home do not want this pantomime. They want to know what is happening, not you sitting at the back shouting and roaring at me every time I try to speak. The reality is we ran an election and we told the people of Ireland what we were going to do over the course of five years.

No, no.

We came together as two parties-----

No, not at all. You promised that this would be done within the first 100 days. Stop misrepresenting what you said.

Resume your seat, Deputy Doherty.

We came together-----

You did not say five years. Show me where in the manifesto it said five years. Every year you said we would get a tax reduction. Every year you said there would be a tax reduction.

Am I allowed to speak or is bully boy Pearse just back?

Stop misrepresenting yourself.

Mr. Angry. Bully boy Pearse.

Give it a few weeks and you will be back again.

You are a bully and you shout down people in this House. You are a bully boy and your bully boy tactics will not work on me. We formed a government with a five-year programme.

Tell the truth.

You have let the mask slip again today that you do not believe there are measures needed to make house-building more viable in terms of apartments.

Nonsense. Tell the truth.

We are taking those decisions. You will not support the decisions we are taking to make a real difference in housing supply.

20 more years.

13 years. You created the crisis.

When we see those extra homes built in the years ahead, young people right across this country will benefit from that. This is budget one of five.

5,000 children homeless.

You promised in 100 days. You promised every year.

It will make a real and sustainable difference.

Please show some respect for the Tánaiste.

You are lying over and over again to the public.

We will be delivering on our programme for Government while you will continue to shout, roar and offer nothing constructive to this country-----

That is the trick. At least own up that you broke your promises.

-----because that is what bully boys do.

Hear, hear.

At least own up that you broke your promises.

You are a bully.

You hate being confronted by the truth. Over and over again, you break promises.

A bit of order, Deputy.

You are a bully, shout and roar, online trolling.

You have done it over and over again.