Can we extend a very warm welcome to Margaret Loftus, who is in the Public Gallery and is appearing before the justice committee today?

The Taoiseach has published his spring economic forecast and it tells a very clear story. The Government expects the State's surplus to grow from €5 billion to over €9 billion, meaning billions more flowing into the Exchequer. The Government is taking in billions more, yet people cannot afford to heat their homes. People cannot pay their electricity bills. It is as though there are two different realities in this country: one in the Taoiseach's forecast of growth and surpluses and another at kitchen tables across the land, where there are cold homes, mounting bills and real fear.

The energy crisis is not easing; it is intensifying. Electricity prices are forecast to rise again and the Taoiseach's own Ministers warn of increases of up to 9% in the months ahead. We saw repeated hikes last year and now more are coming. More than 300,000 households are already in arrears on their energy bills, yet the Taoiseach's response is not to act but to comment, not to intervene but to observe. It is as if the Government is a spectator in this crisis rather than a government responsible for fixing it.

Over 750,000 households rely on home heating oil, and their bills have doubled in a matter of weeks. Last week, my colleague an Teachta Pearse Doherty spoke about a young working couple, both in employment, who have gone three weeks without heat because they cannot afford it. They did everything right.

They have worked hard, studied and built their lives and still they cannot heat their homes.

Families now face rising school transport costs and the return of junior and leaving certificate fees. That is what the Government is bringing to people's doors. It has scrapped energy credits and refused even to cut carbon tax on home heating oil when people needed relief most. While pressure mounts, the Government pulls supports. The moment households need help, it steps back. When intervention is required, it chooses inaction. Now it seems its message is that things will get worse and it will look at it again in October. That is six months away.

This is exactly what the Government did last year. It delayed and waited and when October's budget did come, its decisions actually left people worse off, so here we go again. On the one hand, the Government talks of rising prices and further shocks while on the other, it tells people to struggle on and wait. That is unacceptable. The Government has been warned about soaring energy costs and has been told that its measures are inadequate and that people need real intervention but it did not listen.

This failure is not confined to energy. We see it in housing. This weekend, figures show eviction notices surging since the Government's rent hike Bill came in - exactly as we warned. People see the same pattern. The Government does not listen, it delays and it makes the wrong calls and ordinary people pay the price.

On the back of the Government's spring economic statement today, the question is simple. With billions more available to it, why does the Government choose not to act for people who cannot heat their homes or meet their electricity bills? How does it justify refusing to act on the cost of home heating oil while prices remain so high? Why does it refuse to introduce energy credits when people desperately need them? Why does it not bring forward meaningful cost-of-living supports?

I do not agree with the Deputy's analysis. The Government understands fully the pressure people are under as a result of the various cost shocks over recent years from Covid to the invasion of Ukraine, when inflation was at its peak of 10%. We understand that. Prices are at an elevated high and now the war in the Middle East has again created a significant shock in terms of fossil fuel supply globally and prices. Every country across the world is grappling with this reality.

We have responded in a substantial, targeted and sustainable way - not just a global sum of €750 million but in terms of food production, road haulage and a reduction in excise duties, which benefits everybody. We will continue to keep a focus on this. In terms of home heating and other issues, we have to look at more permanent ways to ease pressures on families, particularly from energy pricing more generally.

The Deputy referenced the Government surplus but, as she knows, there is an Exchequer deficit of about €1.8 billion. The Deputy knows what is happening here. We are transferring funding from the Exchequer into the investment funds so it is not as if there are billions hanging round in a drawer somewhere to just take and spend. The Deputy surely knows that. What is happening with that funding is that it is being invested in people, housing, energy and infrastructure and offshore wind projects. That is what ISIF is doing - solar farm financing, grid expansion and interconnectors, battery storage systems for renewables, building energy retrofit programmes, the EV charging clean public transport fleet, the circular economy, forestry carbon sequestration projects, national scale retrofit financing platforms, equity in large housing developments, delivery of nationwide housing supply, mixed tenure schemes, urban regeneration partnerships and regional housing projects. That is where the investments are happening and much more than that.

However, the Deputy seems to misunderstand that, or is she saying we should wind up the funds - the Future Ireland Fund and the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund? The Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund is helping to fund the metro. Is the Deputy saying we should scrap the metro? Is she saying we should scrap these projects in which ISIF is investing? I think that would be a huge mistake. We are very clear that housing remains our ultimate priority. Infrastructure is key to everybody in the country. That is clear. Disability and child poverty are other issues. These are areas on which we have focused very strongly and are in a position to target.

The Deputy does not pay any heed to these factors. She seems to want to risk everything in the middle of this war. I think that would be a foolish thing to do. Notwithstanding what I have said, I think it does make sense, after a €750 million allocation so far, that we would look at how, structurally, we can ease the pressure on families permanently in the energy cost area. That will take a bit of work because we need to be targeted in how we allocate people's resources. That is a fundamental point that I think the Deputy consistently ignores.

An aidhm atá againn ná cabhair agus tacaíocht a thabhairt do dhaoine. Tá roinnt déanta againn. Níl aon amhras faoi sin. Is é seo ceann de na pacáistí is mó ar fud na hEorpa. Tá níos mó le déanamh againn. Beidh moltaí againn i gcomhthéacs na cáinaisnéise a bheidh againn i mí Dheireadh Fómhair. Beimid in ann an brú atá ar dhaoine a laghdú níos mó. Sin an aidhm atá againn.

That is guff, plain and simple. The Taoiseach has given us a catalogue of his own failures. On housing, the metro and infrastructure, it is fail, fail, fail on his part. Now, as we learn that the projected surplus will grow from €5.1 billion to more than €9 billion, the Taoiseach has the poor mouth for struggling families. That is all he is offering. I do not know if the Taoiseach thinks that people live lives of fiction. I want him to hear very clearly that families are struggling now, today, in the here and now. Part of our economic resilience, and the health of our economy and our society, has to be to intervene when families are struggling. You do not leave them in the lurch. You do not leave hundreds of thousands of people unable to meet their electricity bills, or hundreds of thousands of people struggling to pay for their home heating oil. There is an obligation on the Government to listen, to hear and to intervene. Why will it not do that, with all of these additional billions that are now projected?

Retrofitting is not a failure. Two hundred and fifty thousand houses have been retrofitted. That is a success, and all of those families can enjoy lower bills as a result of that retrofitting.

They do not have lower bills.

The Government did not wait. The Deputy has to be honest that over the last number of years, we have brought in very significant schemes that permanently reduce the cost of living for people. The free primary and second level school books scheme has reduced costs for families with children going to school. We also have the free hot school meals, a very recent innovation, which also helps families. The national childcare scheme is a universal subsidy that helps to reduce the cost of childcare. In terms of the fuel allowance, we have extended that, and brought in 50,000 extra on the working family payment. We did not wait.

You do not live in the real world.

In the budget, we took very concrete measures. A new baby grant of €280 is paid in addition to the first month of child benefit for children born or adopted on or after 1 December 2024. We have all of those measures. We have extended the free travel pass, and also the medical card for the over-70s. There are lots of things we have done. We are going to do more, and we will do more in the time ahead.

You do not live in the real world.

I acknowledge Margaret Loftus and salute her courage.

Another week has passed, and the cost-of-living crisis continues to heap pressure on families who are struggling to make ends meet. When people look to the Government to give them some hope, it tells them to manage their expectations. They are left wondering what it takes to get the same urgent treatment it affords to sectoral interests. I am left asking the same thing.

Every day, the Taoiseach stands in the Dáil lecturing us about prudence and restraint. Of course, he is right to point to global instability as a driver of chaos. It is, clearly, but that instability cannot excuse his inaction at home. In fact, decisive action and cool heads are exactly what we need at a time of chaos. Unfortunately, the disarray internationally has infected the Government too. Just as Viktor Orbán lost his election in Hungary, it seems the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, has lost his sense of humour.

It is clear that Trump has lost the plot, and we are all paying the price, but the Government has lost its touch, not that it ever had it, really. Where are the cool heads? Where is the decisive action? As the spring economic forecast indicates, there is money there. It is how the Government is spending it that is the problem. Nowhere is that problem clearer than in the mixed messages coming from the Taoiseach’s own Cabinet.

In here, the Taoiseach tells us he is acting prudently but in the media, the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance has transformed into the Minister for commentary and kite-flying, floating a stream of potential budget measures. In recent weeks, we have heard about saving scheme tax cuts and changes to inheritance tax; in the past 24 hours alone, new income tax measures and energy credits; and this morning, the Taoiseach is talking about new Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, grants. His shedsits are the latest - €14,000 tax free for people with large gardens. Where is the plan? Where are the supports for PAYE workers?

This is the failure of the Taoiseach's budget last year writ large. It is the original sin of his Government's lack of vision and ambition for the country. In October, there was no money for the renewables revolution that we need. There was nothing for universal public childcare, yet the Government found €1 billion in tax breaks for developers and fast food chains. The question is obvious: how can the Government move quickly for some but not for others, when nearly 500,000 households are in arrears on their energy bills, grocery prices are rising and the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, is warning that electricity prices could go up by up to 9% this summer?

The Taoiseach is failing to introduce the systems change that is needed. Other countries like Spain are offering an alternative by investing heavily in renewables, recognising the link between tackling climate action, reducing household bills and securing the energy grid. Unlike the Irish Government, the Spanish Government has a vision. Will the Taoiseach give hope to hard-pressed PAYE workers, adopt targeted energy credits, support pay rises and invest in real climate action to insulate against energy shocks?

I appreciate very much the Deputy's sincerity in wanting to look after people under pressure. We have a similar position but I think we need an honest debate as well. The Deputy cannot just come in here and say we have no vision for investment in the grid. Where has she been in the last number of months when we announced an investment of up to €19 billion in the grid? I refer to the PR6, where we put substantial billions of equity into EirGrid. Why does the Deputy come in then and say something that is patently untrue? Per capita, I would say we have invested more than Spain. We are number one in Europe in terms of the integration of renewables to the grid. That is true.

Also for data centres.

Let us have an honest debate where we can agree and disagree on the facts and let us not make up stuff that does not have any basis from a factual point of view.

In terms of the surplus, I repeat that is going into the funds, such as the Future Ireland Fund and the infrastructure and nature fund. The Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, ISIF, manages that and it is being invested in a whole range of areas including renewables, such as offshore and onshore wind projects, solar farm financing, grid expansion and interconnectors, battery storage systems for renewables, investment platforms for energy developers and funds combining wind and grid-scale storage. Then there is the building of the energy retrofit programmes. There is a whole range of investments out of those funds going into that renewables space and protecting us in terms of developing a low-carbon public infrastructure for the future and electric vehicle, EV-charging, clean public transport fleets, a circular economy waste system and, above all, a lot going into housing, with equity in housing developments, delivery of nationwide housing supply and so on, such as the private, social, affordable and mixed-tenure schemes.

Money is being invested. We are not letting it hang around doing nothing. Therefore, the more honest position would be whether the Deputy suggesting that we would stop the funds or pause investing in them. Of course, they are necessary for the future pressures that will undoubtedly arise because of the ageing population and more expenditures that will arise in health services and looking after older people in our society because our lifespan is increasing dramatically as well.

In the meantime, we have allocated €715 million now in terms of supports. We have reduced, effectively, the excise on diesel by 32 cent. That will benefit workers. It benefits everbody, more or less, in society. Petrol is down 27 cent from where it would be if we had not intervened and marked gas oil will be up to about 20% when the scheme comes in for contractors. I will come back later on that sectoral thing the Deputy accused us of doing.

By all means, let us have an honest debate. The Taoiseach will have to acknowledge, in honesty, that the Labour Party supported the funds.

We did not support any narrowing of the tax base. We accept, of course, a renewables revolution requires investment, and requires money to be invested in it. However, if we are having an honest debate, let us talk about the ESRI report which acknowledged that Ireland has the highest energy prices in Europe and that a huge problem, which the Taoiseach must recognise, is that our electricity prices are being driven by gas prices. We are among the countries in the EU with the highest reliance on gas - a fossil fuel - and that is extremely costly. We have an extremely high proportion of households still using oil for heating. We are out of line with other countries which have invested more extensively in renewables and are pushing renewables to power electricity generation. Instead of that, the Government, particularly since the Green Party left office, is relying on an expanding series of data centres which are gobbling up electricity, and relying on the importation of LNG. Where is the vision there? Why are we not seeing more of a move from subsidising dirty fuels?

We have put billions into the funds.

We supported the funds.

We then have an Exchequer deficit of €1.1 billion. That is what we have after the moneys is allocated to the funds. We do not have billions of surplus, if the Deputy accepts that the moneys should go to the funds, and she accepts that they should. When they are in the funds, they are being invested and so on under ISIF. We take the Deputy's point in terms of pressures that people are under. On the renewables, we are investing very significantly. ISIF is investing in many projects in respect of offshore wind and other areas. I have a full list of the housing area, transport, you name it.

From the sectoral interests point of view, the Deputy said we only looked after sectors. We do need to look after food production, so farmers do need to be supported in terms of food production. Contractors do as well. That is not narrow sectoral interest, we all benefit if the food production system can produce food at a reasonably affordable price. We need hauliers to get our goods to the shelves of shops in an affordable way.