I want to raise the package of measures the Government is to introduce this week, which it announced on Sunday and hopes to have before the Dáil later on. Actually, I want to rephrase that. I should have referred to half measures because they are not going to address the situation, just as the measures a few weeks ago did not address the then situation, as was predicted by my colleague Pearse Doherty in the Dáil. Any reduction in the price of diesel or petrol is just going to be wiped out by the continual rises in fuel prices. A man rang me yesterday to say that the price of diesel had gone up in his local area by 10 cent per litre yesterday. He asked me when the measures were coming in. There has been nothing on green diesel at the pumps either. I think it is a matter of some sort of a rebate you have to apply for based on the amount of fuel consumed last year, providing receipts and making sure you are tax compliant, etc. Why is the price not just being reduced at the pumps to help farmers? They need it now.

There has been nothing on kerosene. Older people and disabled people in particular are really being affected by the increasing cost of kerosene. I was rung yesterday by a woman who is a family carer for her husband, who is disabled, and who herself has many health issues. Her oil is about to run out. She said she cannot afford the current price of home heating oil. She was hoping to God there would be some reduction in the measures to be introduced. She said she cannot even put the heating on. She is afraid to do so in case the last little bit runs out. We do not yet have the weather to turn off the heating, especially for older or disabled people. It is still cold and very damp.

We heard a lot in the lead-up to the election of 2024 about what was going to happen for disabled people and all the supports that were going to be given to them. There was nothing in budget 2026, nothing in the half measures a few weeks ago and nothing in the half measures of this week to assist them to afford to live in a little bit of comfort. As I said here earlier, they are choosing between eating and heating.

We have to remember that the people who are suffering on the ground are the people who elected the TDs and Ministers. These people are just being ignored at the moment and are not being listened to. If farmers do not get the help they need, food will not be produced. If hauliers do not get the help they need, food will not get to the supermarket from the ports. If bus drivers do not get the help they need, children will not get to school. This is very serious, and it is not being addressed.

I am aware there is a motion before the Dáil as we speak, so I will be very careful in what I say in order to respect our Standing Orders. However, I have to say that today's motion is an embodiment of the extreme situation our nation has come to. It is this extreme situation that I wish to speak about.

A number of political commentators have said the protests were somehow unexpected and came out of nowhere, but this is totally incorrect. I have mentioned twice in recent months the threat of the collapse of the haulage and other industries posed by the Government’s energy policy.

I have spoken repeatedly about the Government's policy on energy that does not exploit or explore our own gas fields, shuts down our peat harvesting plants and then increases tax on increasingly expensive fuel. People need to work. These are taxes which Labour and Sinn Féin supported. This insane directionless policy has been sleepwalking us into fatal vulnerability. Now, here we are. A global energy shock happened and life has been made simply impossible in this country. People cannot afford to move out and if they get a job, they cannot afford to drive to it. With the continuing cap on Dublin Airport added to the global energy crisis, soon enough we will not be able to afford to leave the country. Yet, we run a budget surplus and we are supposedly one of the richest countries in the world. God knows, I hear constituents speak of how hard the tax bill hurts them, so where does this money go? The €300,000 bike shed, the €56 million bailout to RTÉ and the €6 billion to IPA accommodation. It goes straight into the pockets of already rich landlords and then how many millions of euro go to the NGOs and the quangos with no accountability? These protests were not predictable. They were inevitable and until we see a serious reversal of course and a serious new vision for this nation, this crisis will remain inevitable.