We now move to Leaders' Questions under Standing Order 38. I call Deputy Doherty.

I thank the Leas Cheann-Comhairle. He will indulge me in welcoming the páistí ó Scoil Náisiúnta Chnoc na gCaiseal in the Kingdom, County Kerry. They are very welcome to the Dáil today to witness proceedings as guests of Deputy Pa Daly.

Tá daoine ag labhairt amach le míonna anuas go bhfuil siad ag cuardach cuidithe. Tá cuidiú de dhíth orthu. Tá siad ag rá nach féidir leo a gcuid billí a íoc. Tá oibrithe, teaghlaigh agus pinsinéirí ag déanamh gach rud i gceart ach go fóill tá siad ag titim siar. Maidin inniu, dhearbhaigh an ESRI an rud a bhí ar eolas againn, is é sin go bhfuil an ghéarchéim seo go dona, go forleathan agus ag éirí níos measa. Bhí deacracht ag suas le 30% de theaghlaigh a gcuid billí fuinnimh a íoc. Is í an fhírinne, áfach, ná go bhfuil sé seo i bhfad níos measa mar léiríonn an tuairisc tréimhse ina raibh na creidmheasanna fuinnimh ar fáil agus nuair a bhí costas leictreachais níos ísle. Anois, áfach, tá siad i bhfad níos measa.

People have been crying out for months for help. They have been telling the Government that they cannot pay their bills. Workers, families and pensioners are doing everything right and they are still falling behind. This morning, the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, confirmed exactly what they had been saying. The crisis is deep, widespread and getting worse. The real picture is even starker, however, because the report reflects a time when energy credits were still in place and electricity costs were lower. The crisis has got much worse since. The Government's response was to withdraw energy credits. At the very moment families needed help most, it took the supports away and made a bad situation worse. That is not just wrong, it is indefensible.

This report does not stand alone. On Tuesday, we learned that 317,000 households could not pay their electricity bills. People already falling behind are now being pushed further and further. Yesterday, in another report, the Central Statistics Office, CSO, told us that grocery prices were rising again, piling pressure on already stretched households. Bills are going up while supports are going down. This crisis is so severe that families with two incomes can no longer afford to pay their bills. This is not marginal; it is a social emergency.

Report after report, warning after warning, are telling the Government the same thing: the crisis is worsening and the Government is standing idly by. How many warnings is the Government going to ignore before it acts? This is not about statistics on a piece of paper. This is about people's lives. It is about people living in cold homes, parents skipping meals so that their children can eat and older people afraid to turn on the heat in their homes. It is about people rationing heat and cutting back on essentials. It is about living with constant anxiety over the next bill that is going to come through the door. All the while, the State runs multibillion euro surpluses, so there is no excuse whatsoever for inaction. The State has the money but it is a question of why people have never felt under so much pressure. Instead of addressing this, the Government has allowed this crisis to deepen, forcing families into impossible choices every week: heat or food, electricity or rent, keeping the lights on or falling into arrears. This is not inevitable. It is a political choice, and it is the Government's choice. That is why this is happening.

Sinn Féin has set out a clear alternative: an emergency budget to cut costs and support households right now. That is what is needed. It includes reinstating the energy credits that the Government withdrew and providing direct, immediate relief for families under severe pressure just to get by. The Tánaiste might not understand this, but out in the real world, people cannot wait for next year's budget or for the Government to get its act together in October. They need the supports now. It is now that bills are rising and that pressure is mounting, so they need the supports now.

How many warnings does the Government need and how many stories does it have to hear before it finally acts, introduces an emergency budget and restores energy credits for households that cannot wait any longer?

Hear, hear.

Of course, the Government has not waited to act. It has introduced what is either the largest or second largest package of supports in the EU. It was announced on the floor of this House around two weeks ago, and I am pleased to say it is having an impact. While diesel and petrol prices are still too high, people have seen them lower at the pumps than they were before the intervention. People see that with their own eyes because we took the decision to reduce the excise on diesel, even going beyond what was allowed under the energy tax directive to reduce it further. We also took the decision to reduce petrol and green diesel costs. Yesterday, we announced two significant support schemes for crucial sectors of the economy - farmers, fishers, farm contractors and hauliers. I certainly heard words of welcome for those schemes, and I am sure the Deputy must have, too. I heard them on the radio and television. Farmers and their representative bodies said the schemes would help and make a difference. The scheme for farmers and farm contractors will open as soon as next Tuesday.

The Deputy is right to highlight the issue of inflation because the war against Iran - the bombing of Iran - has caused inflation to increase, but it is also true to say that the economic analysis of the package that we have introduced has shown it is suppressing inflation. The chief economist in the Department of Finance believes that the package we introduced will not just benefit farmers, fishers, hauliers and people at the pumps, but will also suppress inflation by around 0.6% per month. This will benefit people, by comparison with what they would otherwise have experienced, in the supermarket or local shop as they go about dealing with the cost of living.

The ESRI report did not fall from the sky. It was commissioned by the Government itself because it is always good to have an evidence base. The report states many things. It notes that the number of people at risk of energy poverty or of not being able to warm their homes nearly halved between 2013 and 2024. In 2013, in the depths of a financial crisis, 25% of households in Ireland were struggling to heat their homes. The percentage was still too high at the end of 2024, when it was down to 14%. The report also found that the fuel allowance scheme was very effective. The Minister, Deputy Calleary, his predecessors and this and the last Governments have not sat idly by since the end of 2024. In fact, in the two budgets since then, we took measures to increase the fuel allowance further and extend it to more people. We have seen it extended to more older people and to 50,000 more low-income families. We have seen the amount of the allowance increased also. The war has had a real impact, and that is why, in addition to those measures, we decided to further supplement it by €77 million, extending it for another month, benefiting 470,000 people.

The report refers to the need to help people to warm their homes and ensure they are more energy efficient. I am pleased to say that we are also taking measures in this regard, with record funding this year to help to upgrade people's homes, make them more energy efficient and make them warmer so they will be cheaper to heat, allowing us to move away from the over-reliance on fossil fuels. We have seen an increase in the application rate for these grants of 186% as a result of decisions made by the Minister for housing, Deputy O'Brien, and Government colleagues.

Grants for windows, doors and heat pumps are all up hugely on last year. Since 2019, over 250,000 home energy upgrades have been delivered thanks to Government funding of over €1.7 billion.

This is not a question of anybody having to wait for anything. This is a Government acting beyond the government of any other European member state to try to make real progress. The Deputy may like to put forward a narrative but people out there know that we have taken measures to reduce the price of diesel and petrol, help key sectors of the Irish economy and suppress inflation, and they know that we stand ready to take more in the months.

With respect, the Tánaiste not understand the scale of the crisis in people's homes. Does he really believe that what he has just said here makes a blind bit of difference to any one of the 317,000 families-----

Wow.

"Wow"? Listen to this. Does that make a blind bit of difference to the 317,000 families that cannot pay their electricity bills now? The Tánaiste is talking about extending the fuel allowance. That ends today. He is talking about stuff that has already happened. They still cannot pay their electricity bills. That is the problem. Doe the Tánaiste know what he is telling them? He is telling them to wait until next year's budget. The bills keep on rolling in, the prices keep going up, the pressure is mounting, the billions of euro keep on rolling into the coffers and the Government will not give Irish citizens the support they need at this point in time. We need an emergency budget. The Government needs to restore the energy credits that it withdrew from those families in last year's budget. It made a massive mistake and has plunged families into crisis - 317,000 families. Just picture that. How many children and adults-----

I thank Deputy Doherty.

These families cannot pay their electricity bills. They need support now. What the Tánaiste has said does not cut it for them because he does not understand the scale of the crisis. That is his problem.

It is quite extraordinary that after 16 years as the Opposition spokesperson on finance, the Deputy still believes that a cost-of-living package of €750 million does not help. Of course it helps. It helps reduce the cost of diesel and petrol; it extended the fuel allowance; it is making people's homes warmer; it is helping the farmers, fishers and hauliers; and it is helping to suppress inflation. The Deputy wants to ignore all of that because he has this narrative of telling the Irish people that the Government is refusing to act. The Irish people are not stupid. They know we are acting.

The Tánaiste is treating them as stupid.

Deputy Doherty is trying to convince them of a false narrative, but the Irish people know something else, too. He Deputy does not want "an" emergency budget. He wants one a week.

I do-----

He came in here about two weeks ago and asked me to bring forward a package of measures that would have cost €1 billion. Last week, Sinn Féin held its Ard-Fheis and said, "God, we had better come up with another plan - €3.2 billion". Sinn Féin's policies are not sustainable. We will have no options left in the winter if the Deputy continually comes in here every week and says "another billion, another billion, another €3 billion" without even bothering to target the measures. Under Sinn Féin's plan, the Deputy would get an energy credit. He does not need an energy credit. Sinn Féin has not even done the level of detailed policy work-----

The Government has had four years to target energy credits.

Every week with the Deputy, it is another emergency budget. He wants to spend a surplus that would not even exist if he was in power. We are acting. The Deputy is making it up.

Let us walk down the street together and talk to ordinary people.

Order please.

The Tánaiste needs to get out of his bubble. It is no wonder he is going down in the polls. Seriously.

Deputy Doherty is making it up as he goes along-----