Met Éireann issued a cold weather warning this morning. Temperatures are set to plunge to -3° with frost, ice and dangerous conditions expected over the coming days. People are anxious. People are preparing. People are scared because they simply cannot afford another winter like the last one.

One communication to my office this morning was from a person who wrote:

We got our autumn gas bill. It was €275. The heating had barely been on. We paid just under €20 in VAT, €20 in carbon tax and a standing charge of around the same, all totaling €59.80. The next gas bill will be double that as the weather has changed. This is nearly impossible for us. It looks like we will freeze again this year. It is just survival now.

When people are describing their lives as "survival", something is deeply wrong. However, this is the reality so many are living in and this is the Ireland of 2025. Yet, the Government has scrapped the energy credits just as people's bills are rising again. It leaves families to face the cold entirely on their own at the harshest time of the year. Yesterday, St. Vincent de Paul said it expects a quarter of a million calls for help this year. That is a quarter of a million people and families turning to charity because they cannot make ends meet. This tells us how serious, how widespread and how devastating this hardship has become.

Across the board, everything is getting dearer. Rents are through the roof as is the weekly food shop. Parents are budgeting down to the last euro. People feel it every time they go to the supermarket or to the petrol station and every time they try to pay a bill. Life is getting harder, not easier.

This is the point: the biggest hit of all is one the Government chose to impose. By increasing student fees by €500, it pushed up the cost of education more than anything else this year. For families with students, this is a massive extra burden. It is the single steepest rise in any household cost and the Government caused it. Of course, it also hiked up fuel costs, petrol, diesel and home heating oil.

D’eisigh Met Éireann rabhadh aimsire fuaire ar maidin. Tá an teocht le titim go dtí -3° le sioc agus leac oighir agus táthar ag súil le cúinsí contúirteacha sna laethanta amach romhainn. Tá imní ar dhaoine mar tá a fhios acu nach féidir leo teacht slán ar gheimhreadh eile cosúil leis an gceann deireanach a bhí againn. Bhain an Rialtas na creidiúintí fuinnimh uathu, ach tá siad ag teastáil ó dhaoine anois láithreach. Caithfidh an Rialtas an cinneadh sin a mhalartú.

The Government, of course, also removed the energy credits. These things did not just happen. These are deliberate decisions taken knowing full well the pressure families were already under. I have raised the issue of the energy companies and their exorbitant prices time and again in this Chamber. I warned repeatedly but the Government failed to appreciate the scale of what is happening out there. I have to continue raising these points because, as the weather gets colder, the hardship increases and more people are pushed to the brink. I have asked the Government before to tackle the energy companies and get them to end their rip-off.

However, in the here and now, people need help from the Government. The easiest, most direct and immediate way to do this is to restore the energy credits. I ask again, and I ask plainly: will the Government please restore the energy credits or is it prepared to allow families to struggle through winter under its policies?

Ar dtús báire, ní aontaím leis an Teachta. Cuirim fáilte roimh na cuairteoirí in Áiléar na gCuairteoirí Oirirce. Is deas bualadh leo inniu. Ní aontaím leis an Teachta. Admhaím go bhfuil dualgas ar an Rialtas gach aon tacaíocht is féidir a thabhairt do mhuintir na tíre, go háirithe do dhaoine a bhfuil ioncam íseal acu. Is é sin atá déanta againn sa cháinaisnéis a bhí againn le déanaí. Tá muid ag fós ag díriú ar na daoine bochta sa tír. Tá sé sin ceart agus cóir.

I disagree with the Deputy's analysis in terms of her analysis that Government has not responded to the needs of people in our economy. First of all, the economic resilience of Ireland has been significant coming through Brexit, through Covid-19 and through the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and the consequential energy crisis that ensued. I recall Deputy McDonald advancing the Liz Truss solution on that occasion, where she wanted to bail out all the energy companies. Liz Truss tried that and look what happened.

No. The Taoiseach's recall is wrong; it is sketchy.

Deputy McDonald had the Liz Truss approach to the energy crisis. She quickly abandoned it as things went pear-shaped in the UK as a result of that particular policy.

In regard to the budget, we accept the situation is tough for many households and families out there. Even though inflation is coming down from the high of 2023-----

Please, Deputies.

In terms of where it was, it is coming down. Cop on. In 2021, 2022 and 2023-----

We need to be upfront with people here. The bottom line for us is that in the recent budget we have targeted resources at those most in need. We managed €10 for the pensioners. In terms of fuel, we increased the fuel allowance by €5 a week, from €33 to €38. That is an additional €140 over the fuel season. Fuel allowance now covers 26% of households. That is up from 23%. We have extended the reduced VAT on gas and electricity until December 2030. Substantial funding has been allocated for home energy upgrades and retrofitting, which really helps families and helps people.

This Government has done more than any other for a long, long time in respect of the cost of education in terms of free schoolbooks at primary and at post-primary level. That was quite a radical move. It took Sinn Féin by surprise, but it happened. That has been a real reduction in costs. Capitation grants for primary, special schools and post-primary went up massively in this budget-----

That is not true.

Could we please have one voice?

-----particularly to help primary schools and special schools as well. We have targeted the resources. Sinn Féin wants to look after millionaires and so on with energy credits. That is its business-----

So now we are millionaires.

----but as far as we are concerned, we need to target resources.

Deputies.

Sinn Féin has had a few millionaires in its day across the water, some of them quite dubious by the way, but we will say no more about that.

Bring back the Galway tent.

You went into Government with them.

Deputy Gould, Sinn Féin has a leader.

The other area that we focused on was public services. If we look at the economy now, our expenditure has gone up over 7% as a result of the Estimates in the budget this year. That is significant. Why? Because we are investing in disability services, and we need to. We are investing in child poverty-----

Child poverty has doubled.

-----with substantial increases in the child support payment, all of which is dealing with those families who are clearly under pressure and who need our resources the most. Sinn Féin has gone for all universal supports and ignoring those with the lowest incomes.

All of the bragging in the world from the Taoiseach does not alter the fact that 250,000 people and families will reach out to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul for help. I am glad the Taoiseach's benches finds this amusing and that his would-be successor is grinning like a Cheshire cat while we have this exchange. I have to tell the Taoiseach that I do not find this funny. I do not need him to mansplain the economy to me. I do not need him to dodge and evade a simple question. I asked him about energy credits. I have set out for him the reality that people are now fearful, that people are not turning on their heat and that the heart is crossways on people when they are opening their bills. That is the reality. It may not land with the Taoiseach. I do not know what reality he lives in, but I know who I represent in here. I represent families that are struggling. I represent working people who are struggling and are now fearful that they cannot make their bills.

I asked the Taoiseach: will he restore these energy credits? I would like a straight answer to that precise question.

Hear, hear.

We do not need lectures from the Deputy about who she represents or who we represent. The people on this side of the benches came from working-class backgrounds and got elected as Deputies because they are in touch with people and understand the realities out there.

They clearly do not.

I ask Deputy McDonald to please allow the Taoiseach to answer.

The Deputy should stop that sort of pretence that she goes on with all of the time. Sinn Féin wants to support those on very high incomes with energy credits.

No, we do not.

That is what she said. We decided not to do that. Sinn Féin wanted us to give energy credits to everybody, irrespective of income. Sinn Féin wants to give millionaires and people on €200,000 an energy credit. We have said that we will give child support payments the biggest increase. Children over 12 will get €16 extra a week out of this budget up to €78 a week. Children under 12 will get an increase of €8 up to €58 a week. Job seeker's benefit allowance has been increased by €10 per week, as have State pensions and so on.

There has also been investment in public services in terms of education, health and disability. Yes, we made choices.

They cannot heat their homes.

The Deputy had her chance to speak. We made our choices. We prioritised services for people.