It has been a bad week for the Government; it is been a good week for people power. The fuel protests caused the resignation of a Minister of State and the sudden appearance of the young Turks of Fianna Fáil. Those protests led to the majority of the Government being reduced and the Government being destabilised. That is before we get to the by-elections in just over a month's time.

It is often said that power comes from the barrel of a gun, but in this country it often seems to come from the cab of a tractor. The message that people will take, correctly, from the Government's response to the protests is this: if you do not take militant protest action and if you are not representing landlords or big business, the Government will ignore your demands, no matter how reasonable or justified they are. The fact that five years into a cost-of-living crisis the Government is still ignoring the demands of workers, carers and disabled people on the cost of living is truly outrageous. Prices have gone up by almost a quarter in the past five years, but the Government decided that the cost-of-living crisis was over as soon as the general election was. That is why it used the budget to withdraw the cost-of-living measures that it used to buy the general election. That included a cruel €1,400 cut for disabled people. That was a targeted measure.

Since taking over as Minister for Finance, the Tánaiste has ignored the very reasonable and modest request for €400 emergency payment in order that people can pay their winter heating bills. He has lectured workers, disabled people and carers that he has to be responsible and careful with the State's finances. Of course, that did not stop him finding €700 million for tax cuts for fast food chains and the hospitality industry, €400 million for property developers and €300 million for Google. It has not stopped him from finding €220 million down the back of the couch to give to hauliers and farmers.

Some of the excise cuts will trickle down to workers, which is welcome. It would not have happened without the protests. We have called for a price cap for years and we introduced legislation in that regard over two years ago. Without a price cap, the cuts will be quickly swallowed up by the further increases in oil prices caused by Trump and Netanyahu's illegal wars, which the Government still has not condemned despite all of the talk of standing up for international law.

It is the same old story. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have plenty of money for business but when it comes to workers and carers, out comes the poor mouth. The trade unions need to take heed. We are in a new period at home and abroad and a new phase of militant protest is needed. Workers do not need tractors to force the Government to listen. The most effective form of disruptive protest is the strike, a power that all workers have. It is clear that the Government can take emergency measures when it wants to or is under pressure to. When will it introduce universal measures to protect ordinary people from the cost of living crisis? It has cut the price of petrol and diesel. Will it make public transport free immediately? Will it bring in a €500 energy credit for every household paid for by a levy on data centres? Will it levy the owners and operators of private jets so that they do not benefit from the excise cuts?

We have to acknowledge that real wages in this country are rising. We also have to acknowledge that we made very significant increases, quite rightly, in the disability budget this year, albeit with a big focus on service provision. Those increases totalled over €600 million. The Government is committed to the introduction of a cost-of-disability payment and a lot of very good work is being done by the Minister, Deputy Calleary, my colleague the Minister of State, Deputy Higgins, and others. The consultation on that has closed. There was very good engagement from stakeholders, including people with disabilities and their representative bodies. I thank them for that.

I need to keep saying, because it is true, that the measures we took have benefits for some sectors but they also have an overall economic benefit that helps everybody. There is nothing that triggers inflation more than commodity prices. If we cannot take measures to try to suppress energy prices, insofar as anyone can during a war and the knock-on impact on supply to which it gives rise, inflation will increase even further. That will have a detrimental effect on the people to which the Deputy referred. I accept his bona fides in highlighting their cases.

The Deputy mentioned Google and others. That is fine; that is his politics. I must point out that €109.3 billion is expected in total tax revenue this year, about €34 billion of that, or 31.1%, is expected to come from the same corporate taxpayers the Deputy demonises. That is before we even get to the income tax benefit of the many thousands of people who work in those communities, some in Dublin and many outside it in terms of regional development.

The Deputy's views on protest are well known. We can have a debate on his a loose enough definition of what constitutes a protest. He and I have different views as to where peaceful protest starts and ends. Lots of genuine, decent people protested this week. There were also people who crossed the line in terms of legality. I saw people saying pretty horrific things to Deputy Murphy about his support for LGBT people in this country. I agree with him on his support for those people, and we have common cause in that regard. It worries me slightly that he is willing to perhaps adopt common cause with people who abhor much of what he champions. He may agree or disagree with that. I am not saying this to be provocative or rude, but the Deputy sees the bigger prize as mass protest. That merits reflection. Many people leading the protests oppose and abhor everything Deputy Murphy stands for, whether people think that is right or wrong.

On the VAT cut in the hospitality sector, which is supported by some but not all of those in opposition, people can refer to beef barons and name large fast food change chains. The vast majority of people who benefit from the reduced rate of VAT on hospitality are small restaurants and cafés and rural pubs that serve meals in the middle of the day. They are the backbone of the domestic Irish economy. They employ a hell of a lot of people directly and provide benefits to more people indirectly. It is a measure that becomes more important than ever now in terms of supporting the domestic economy and reducing the cost for SMEs at this difficult time.

I do not think the Government gets it. If it got it, we would not have seen the scenes we saw over the past ten days. That is a result of the Government not listening and not acting. One in five people is at risk of poverty. Two in five parents have skipped meals or cut back on what they are eating in order that their kids can have enough to eat. Hundreds of thousands of people are in arrears in on their electricity or gas bills. That is what drove the protests. The common cause I and People Before Profit make is with people who are fighting for action on the cost-of-living crisis. The core demand that emerged from the protests related to price caps.

We were the only party calling for price caps. We introduced a Bill precisely two years ago in which we called for price caps. We will not allow ourselves to be intimidated from supporting protests by the presence of some far-right agitators with their own agenda who are simply trying to hijack and misuse people’s anger. We make no bones about supporting effective protest.

I have heard the Tánaiste say on multiple occasions that the package brought forward the other day had nothing to do with the protests. I do not think there is a single person in the country, including the Tánaiste, who believes that. No one believes it. The message the Tánaiste sent out on foot of his actions is that protest works and achieves results and concessions. That is a message to everyone. We want to see that built on by mass, effective – including disruptive – protest to force universal action for everyone.

The Deputy used the term “disruptive protest”. I will not speak for Deputy, but I will say that I do not support the blockade of critical infrastructure or the idea that someone can tell me whether I can move freely around this country. I do not support some of the comments online last night from the so-called self-appointed leaders that if anyone on these benches on this side of the Chamber attends an agricultural show, we will be dragged out of it. I do not think the Deputy supports that either. We should condemn that, because we are better than that.

On price caps, the Deputy has a view. We have a different view. We do not believe they work. Liz Truss tried a version of this. We believe that price caps transfer the cost from the forecourt to the taxpayer. It does not disappear; it is just transferred. Price caps have significant budgetary implications in terms of the delivery of public services because they do not reduce the cost; they just transfer it from the forecourt to the taxpayer. It is not free money. It has a real impact, and it would cost many billions.

There are challenges in this country, but figures from the CSO now show that the average weekly wage is over €1,000. We are creating 200 jobs every working day. We have an ability to make real progress on key issues and help people to work through the challenges they are facing.