Cá bhfuil an Taoiseach? I understand the Taoiseach is back in the country. He should be here taking questions. The cost of home heating oil has shot up €80 in just one month. It is a big blow. The average price for a fill of oil is now a staggering €980. This hike hits more than 1 million households, mostly rural families and the elderly, who rely on oil to heat their homes. Here is the real kick in the teeth. This unaffordable cost of home heating oil has been driven up by the Government’s decisions. Some €220 of the cost of a fill of oil is already carbon tax. The Government’s planned increases will add a further €150 in the time ahead. It has to be asked. How on earth does it think people can afford that? One family contacted me yesterday. They got a fill of heating oil last week and they have not turned on the heating since Friday because they need that fill to last over Christmas and throughout the new year. They are rationing their heat. The weather is colder now and the reality is that more and more working households struggle to pay their bills to light and heat their homes. Energy is unaffordable and people are being ripped off.

The Minister, Deputy O’Brien, met with the top brass at energy companies in September, and what happened? The majority hiked up their electricity prices with no fear of any consequence. Then, with winter on the horizon and energy bills going up, the Government chose to cancel energy credits in October's budget, a terrible decision, withdrawing the one bit of help people relied on to pay those rip-off bills. In fact, the Government delivered a budget of €9.4 billion that left working people worse off with no cost-of-living package while households are being hammered with no end in sight.

Social Justice Ireland reported yesterday how the slashing of cost-of-living supports has ratcheted up pressure and pushed more households into financial distress. People literally live in dread of the next electricity, gas or heating bill and I meet working parents who tell me they have bought extra blankets for their kids' beds because they cannot afford to turn on the heat. Elderly people are going to bed early to stay warm. Couples, often with two incomes, are borrowing from family members to pay their energy bills.

These are desperate situations, and the Government sticks its head in the sand.

Tá an Rialtas seo ag barr an ranga maidir le saol na ndaoine a dhéanamh níos deacra. Tá sé le feiceáil arís san ardú ar phraghas an ola don teas tí. Éilíonn teaghlaigh gníomhartha i dtreo saol níos inacmhainne. On the watch of the Government, the cost of lighting and heating a home has become unaffordable, and this simply cannot go on. Households cannot take any more. I know exactly what the Government has done to make life harder for people. It is obvious. It withdrew energy credits, it gives free reign to energy companies to hike up prices, it heaps additional carbon taxes onto home heating oil, it has cancelled cost-of-living supports, it delivered a budget of billions of euro that abandoned people - all bad choices that have made things even worse.

What action will be taken to make life affordable for people or will the Government simply continue to sit back and allow households to take the pain?

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta as ucht na ceiste ar an ábhar tábhachtach seo ach ní aontaím léi ar chor ar bith. I do not agree with her at all. The measures that have been taken in the budget are targeted to help those who need them most, particularly in the area of social protection. We have increased the fuel allowance substantially and expanded it to about 460,000 households right across the country. The Deputy has ignored that, one of the most significant changes we have made.

Another change, on foot of the interim report of the national energy affordability task force, is the effective permanent reduction of VAT from 13.5% to 9% on gas and electricity, bringing about a saving of over €100 per annum for households, a permanent change. Yes, the Deputy is correct that we have not extended the energy credits. That is because we believe that the €3.5 billion that was used there at the appropriate time is more appropriate to go into structural measures such as investing in our grid and in grid capacity. We have also provided equity of €3.5 billion to EirGrid and ESBN. That will allow them to finance the investment that is required in our grid in projects like the North-South interconnector, that one project that will deliver resilience for our grid and will allow-----

Underground.

-----the extension and expansion of renewables into our grid, a project that Deputy McDonald's party seems to be flip-flopping on north of the Border. I have met her party's ministers in the North of Ireland, who are for the project; its Deputies in the South are opposed to it. This is a permanent measure that will deliver affordability.

We want it underground.

Please, Deputy.

I have met Caoimhe Archibald and Liz Kimmins. All of the Deputy's colleagues in the North are taking the right position. They want to see this delivered.

What do we do in the meantime? As regards energy, we unquestionably have affordability issues. That is why we established the national energy affordability task force. We have brought forward interim measures already. That work is continuing and we will publish a report in 2026 looking at some permanent measures that we can change. What the Deputy has not referred to either is the Eurostat report, published just last week, that shows Ireland as mid-ranking now with European colleagues in relation to energy affordability. However, for many households, these bills are expensive and some struggle to pay them. That is why I met the energy providers. All four of the main providers have confirmed again to me at my request that hardship funds will be set up. I say to people who are in arrears that the State is there to support them through the fuel allowance payments, and no one will be cut off. I have again had that confirmed at my request. People will work with providers through this winter period.

The reality is that we are still far too dependent on imported fossil fuel. That is why we need to expand renewables across the country. That is why 41% of our electricity last year was generated through renewable sources. We will continue to expand that - our own energy, in respect of which we are sovereign and we can control - and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.

In relation to the carbon tax, the Deputy has not referred to how the carbon tax that relates to home heating oil has been deferred until May 2026. The carbon tax gives us the capital to bring about permanent affordability measures for families. We are targeting 60,000 retrofits in 2025 alone and €558 million next year in retrofits. That is delivering about a third in savings on average, according to the International Energy Agency, IEA. Those are not my statistics but the IEA's statistics. These are permanent changes for households, including schemes like the warmer homes scheme, which provides a 100% grant to fully retrofit homes, bring renewables to those homes, make them warmer and healthier, and bring about permanent savings for those households.

We will continue to look at all of the measures on affordability.

Does the Minister know how humiliating it is for anybody to have to go to family members to borrow consistently to pay their household bills? Does he know how demoralising it is for working people to go out Monday to Friday, work hard and do their best and still not be able to keep their children warm? Does he know how unacceptable, in fact, how immoral, it is in a wealthy society under a government that boasts billions of euro in surpluses to leave people so stranded and so desperate in these circumstances? The Minister stands here today delusional as though he lives in another place, in another reality. Here is what Social Justice Ireland says. It reports that people are having to make impossible choices - its words, not mine - in order to remain within their weekly budget. That is a polite way of saying that people are struggling. People are now fearful.

Thank you.

Let me ask the Minister a supplementary on the energy credits.

Time is up, Deputy.

The energy credit should be reinstated. I am right, am I not? Is that not a correct position in a wealthy society and from the Minister's Government?

I have answered the Deputy's question directly. For many families, it is not easy and the State is there to support them. That is why we have expanded the social protection measures that are targeted at those who need them. The Deputy made no reference to that. Again, it is in stark contrast to what her colleagues are doing in the North in relation to helping with fuel bills. The fuel allowance payment in the North of Ireland is between €113 and €340. The Deputy probably knows, but she will not say it here today, that it is only available to those over 66 years of age in the North where Sinn Féin holds the finance Ministry. In the South, the fuel allowance is worth about €924 per annum.

That is pathetic.

That is true. Let us leave the politics piece out of it. I can say to families out there that the Government and the State will work with them right the way through this winter to bring about permanent affordability measures. I have mentioned retrofitting.

The Government has abandoned them.

The Deputy is opposed to carbon tax. The carbon tax is invested in people's households to bring about permanent changes to their homes, permanent affordability measures and permanent health measures to their homes. This year 60,000 homes will be retrofitted.