The Government has not protected the most vulnerable. In the last hour, the consumer price index came out and it shows families had to pay more for basics like clothing, footwear and education costs over the past year. Inflation may be slowing but prices are still rising. The Minister knows this because under his Government's watch, the price of beef has increased by 44% in the last five years. It has gone up 24% in the last 12 months alone. Butter and milk prices have risen by 45% in the last five years. In the last year, the price of butter has risen by 10% and that of milk by 5%. In real terms, diced beef prices are up €4.10 in the last five years alone. This is the economic cut of beef to make a stew or a casserole and its price is up by that amount. The price of two litres of whole milk has increased by 73 cent in the last five years. This impacts everyone who has to go to the supermarket to feed a household. The average price of a pound of butter has increased by 55 cent and that of a kilogram of cheddar cheese by 62 cent in just one year.

These price hikes are hitting people really hard, especially now when we know from research that one in five people planned to borrow money just to get through the short but expensive Christmas period. It is not just the everyday costs that are going up. This week, we saw Diageo, a multibillion-euro company, announce that the price of a pint of Guinness will go up by 20 cent. An Post has announced that the price of a stamp is going up by 20 cent. This is just to send a simple letter. These increases are constantly chipping away at people's disposable income and their sense of financial security.

The most recent data we have on motor insurance costs show a rise of 9%. The cost of health insurance has risen by almost 10%. As we know, Irish households are paying more than most in Europe for electricity. People are getting hit in every single direction. The Government is even piling on the direct pain. The cost of third level education rose by €500. Road toll prices are going up. Energy prices go up while the energy support payments are gone. Hope that this Government has any interest in tackling the affordability crisis has all but disappeared.

A recent study by Core Research shows the cost of living remains the defining concern in 2026, with 74%, three quarters of the population, not expecting it to ease. Of adults surveyed, 72% are unconvinced that housing affordability will improve. Some 52% of adults also now expect Ireland to face a recession in 2026. This is a damning indictment of the Government's ability to tackle the affordability crisis and to provide hope and confidence to people.

The question that has to be asked is whether the Government has just given up. It has no answers for increased grocery prices, no answers for increased insurance costs and no answers for increased utility bills. When is the Government going to step up and provide direct supports for those working people, vulnerable people, who need them? Is it prepared to look at such measures as windfall taxes on the big energy companies and the big supermarket chains to target supports at people struggling to pay their bills?

I thank the Deputy for his question on a very important area which is very much to the fore in the mindset of the Government, namely, the cost of living and how vulnerable families grapple with the weekly shop and the price of groceries. In the context of budget 2026, I want to outline how we as a Government are supporting people who are the most vulnerable. We came forward in budget 2026 with a €9.4 billion package. This is about 3.25 times the size of the pre-pandemic package. In terms of wages, if we look at the CSO data, which is the gold standard, it shows a 45% increase in weekly wages since 2015. The average wage is over €1,000 a week. All 13 sectors of our economy are growing evenly. Critically, regarding real wage growth, we are outpacing the rate of inflation.

To assist the most vulnerable families, we extended the clothing and back to school footwear allowance to two- and three-year-olds. We increased the child support payment by €16 for over-12s and €8 for under-12s. We brought forward the reduction to 9% in the VAT rate and extended it to the end of 2030, saving people €100 a month on utility bills, at a cost of €254 million. We brought forward a number of changes to the social welfare code. We brought the fuel allowance to help 46,000 additional families. At this point, one in four households gets the fuel allowance. We have increased the allowance by 15%, which is well above the rate of inflation. Again, we are looking to prevent poverty and fuel poverty over these critical periods. We have also increased the basic rates of social welfare and the thresholds for the carer's allowance, bringing us on a pathway to abolishing the means test. Again, this is rewarding carers and trying to assist those who are protecting the most vulnerable and doing the State a huge service in keeping people in their homes and living independently.

We have worked very hard in increasing the basic social welfare payments by €520 per year. This, again, is a great assistance. We have extended the thresholds of the working family payment for those who are working and on lower incomes. In the public sector pay agreement, we can see how we have ensured that people on incomes under €50,000, those who are under the most pressure, get the greatest increase. Over the lifetime of the agreement, as I just outlined, the increase will be about 17.3%.

This demonstrates what the Government is doing and the action we are taking to respond to the challenges. This year, I will enhance the powers of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, CCPC, the key agency that looks into competition in our sectors, to ensure we are getting fair competition in the grocery sector. We have seen a number of investigations to date in this regard. We have also seen the work the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, is doing in meeting the energy companies. They are very clear. They have hardship funds, and anyone who is in danger should liaise with their energy company. There is assistance there.

We want to work to ensure that everyone is protected in society. That is what you do when you have a strong economy.

Has the Minister dealt with anyone who has tried to apply for hardship funds for a utility company? It is an absolute nightmare. None of these measures, unfortunately, are working enough. Why are people stopping me in JC's Supermarket asking why I cannot reduce the price of groceries? Why are people turning up to my clinic, Deputy Wall's clinics and my colleagues' clinics with utility bills that they cannot pay? It is just not enough. That is the reality of it. The people who cannot pay their bills this month will not get any comfort from what the Taoiseach said yesterday about the Minister, Deputy O'Brien's affordability group that is being set up. No one is going to get any comfort when they cannot pay their bills this week and are going to have to go to St. Vincent de Paul or their community welfare officer and beg, plead and borrow. These are working people who are doing everything they can to try to keep a roof over their head.

This Government does not do legislation. That is clear from last year. It does task forces and working groups. It does not even do them well. What it does is procrastination and inaction, or, when it can, it does deflection. It is very hard to do deflection on the cost of groceries. The Government can do it on housing when it tries to blame immigrants, but it cannot do it on groceries or utility bills. When is the Government going to take on the big utility companies? When is it going to take on the big conglomerates? When is it going to provide targeted payments to those who need it, those workers who are doing everything right and are being let down by the Government?

I have pointed out a series of actions that the Government has taken to protect the lowest-paid workers in our economy, those who are on disability and those who are caring for the most vulnerable in our society. There is a €300 million package aimed at child poverty, for which we have a unit in the Department of the Taoiseach, trying to ensure that families are protected through what we see is a significant challenging period through inflation. Families are now in receipt of all of those actions throughout 2026. We want to do more as a Government. That is why we have set out a pathway that is sustainable. Some of the calls made in this House weekly are not costed and are not sustainable. Our job is to protect the most vulnerable in society through the social welfare code. As I said, one in four homes in our country is now in receipt of fuel allowance. We have seen improvements in terms of social welfare being linked to work with the back-to-work allowance, all those key areas that we need to do more on. If the Deputy looks at the warmer homes scheme, there has been an elevenfold increase since it was brought in in 2020 to future-proof homes throughout our country to ensure that we bring costs down and make our households more sustainable.