Deputy Mary Lou McDonald- speech from 19 Nov 2025

Taoiseach, Met Eireann has issued a cold weather warning this morning. Temperatures are set to plunge to minus 3 degrees with frost, ice, dangerous conditions expected over the coming days. And people are anxious, people are preparing, people are scared because they know they simply cannot afford another winter like the last one. One communication to my office this morning, Taoiseach, went like this. This person wrote, we got our autumn gas bill, it was €275, the heating had barely been on, we paid just under €20 in VAT, €20 in carbon tax, a standing charge of around the same, all totaling €59.80. The next gas bill will be doubled as the weather has changed, this is nearly impossible for us, it looks like we will freeze again this year, it is just survival now. Taoiseach, when people are describing their lives as survival, something is deeply wrong, but this is the reality so many are living in, and this is the Ireland of 2025. And yet, your government has scrapped the energy credits, just as people's bills are rising again. You leave families to face the cold entirely on their own at the harshest time of the year. Yesterday, St Vincent de Paul said they expect a quarter of a million calls for help this year. A quarter of a million people, families turning to charity because they cannot make ends meet. This tells you how serious and how widespread and how devastating this hardship has become. Across the board, everything is getting dearer. Rents are through the roof, as is the weekly food shop. Parents are budgeting down to the last euro. People feel it every time they go to the supermarket, to the petrol station, every time they try to pay a bill. Life is getting harder, not easier. Taoiseach, this is the point. The biggest hit of all is one your government chose to impose. By increasing student fees by 500 euros, you have pushed up the cost of education more than anything else this year. For families with students, this is a massive extra burden. It is the single steepest rise in any household cost, and your government caused it. Of course, you also hiked up fuel costs, petrol, diesel, home heating oil. The first day we'll be back in the future. The second day we'll be back home and we'll be back to the next day. We'll be back home and we'll be back home. Our next day we'll be back home. and that it has been a good time for the future. It's all about the same and the same. You also removed the energy credits. These things did not just happen, these are deliberate decisions taken, knowing full well the pressure families were already under. Now, Taoiseach, I have raised the issue of the energy companies and their exorbitant prices time and again here in this chamber. I have warned you repeatedly, but you have failed to appreciate the scale of what is happening out there. So I have to continue raising these points because as the weather gets colder, the hardship increases and more and more people are pushed to the brink. I have asked you before to tackle the energy companies, to get them to end their rip-off, but in the here and now people need help from government. And the easiest, the most direct, the most immediate way to do this is to restore the energy credits. So I am going to ask you again, Taoiseach, and I am going to ask you plainly, will you please restore the energy credits? Or are you prepared to allow families to struggle through winter under your policies? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I disagree with the Deputy's analysis in the terms of our analysis that Government hasn't responded to the needs of people in our economy. First of all, the economic resilience of Ireland has been very significant, coming through Brexit, COVID, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and the consequential energy crisis that ensued. I recall Deputy Macdonald advancing the Liz Truss solution on that occasion, where you wanted to bail out all the energy companies. Liz Truss tried that and look what happened. That's what happened. You had the Liz Truss approach to the energy crisis and you quickly abandoned it as things went pear-shaped in the UK as a result of that particular policy. And so in the budget, we accept that the situation is tough for many households and families out there. Even though inflation is coming down from the high energy of 2023, sorry, in terms of where it was it's coming down. Come on, cup on. 21, 22, 23. We need to be up front with people here. And so the bottom line for us is that we have targeted resources at those most in need in the recent budget. We managed to 10 euros for the pensioners, but also in terms of fuel, we have increased the fuel allowance by 5 euros a week from 33 to 38. That's an additional 140 over the fuel season. Fuel allowance now covers 26 per cent of households, and that's up from 23 per cent. We have extended the reduced VAT on gas and electricity until December 2030. Funding for home energy upgrades, retrofitting which really helps families and people. Very substantial funding has been allocated. And also in terms of education. I mean, this government has done more than any other party for a long, long time in respect to the cost of education in terms of free books, in terms of free school books at primary and post-primary level. That was quite a radical move. It took you guys by surprise, but it's happened. And that's a real reduction in cost. Capitation grants for primary schools, for special schools and for post-primary schools have gone up massively in this budget, particularly for primary schools and for special schools as well. So we've targeted the resources. You want to look after millionaires and so on with energy credits, that's your business. But I mean, as far as we're concerned, we need to target resources. But you've had a few millionaires in your day now across the world. Some of them quite dubious, by the way. But anyway, we'll say more about that. But I think, to be fair, the other area that we focused on was public services. And if you look at the economy right now, our public services, our expenditure has gone up over 7 per cent as a result of the estimates and budget this year. That's quite significant. Why? Because we're investing in disability services, and we need to. We're investing in child poverty, substantial payments, substantial increases in the child support payment, all of which is dealing with those families who clearly are under pressure and who need our resources the most. Thank you. And you're gone for all universal supports and you're ignoring those and don't know what you're doing. So, Taoiseach, all of the bragging in the world from you does not alter the fact that a quarter of a million people of families will reach out to the St. Vincent de Paul for help. I'm glad your benches find this amusing and that your would-be successor is grinning like a Cheshire cat meanwhile we have this exchange. I have to tell you, I don't find it funny. I don't need you to mansplain the economy to me. I don't need you to dodge and evade a simple question. I've asked you about energy credits. I have set out for you the reality that people are now fearful, that people aren't turning on their heat, that the heart is crossways on people opening their bills. That's the reality. Now, it may not land with you. I don't know what reality you live in, but I know who I represent in here and I represent families that are struggling. I represent working people that are struggling and that are now fearful that they can't make their bills. I've asked, will you restore these energy credits? I would like a straight answer to that precise question. Deputy, we don't need lectures from you in terms of who you represent or who we represent. The people on this side of the benches came from working-class backgrounds and are, as deputies, they got elected because they are in touch with people and they understand the realities out there. So stop that sort of pretense. I want to say to you, you want to support those on very high incomes with energy credits. That's what you said. We decided not to do that. You want to give energy credits to everybody, irrespective of income. Millionaires, people on 200 grand, you want to give them an energy credit. What we have said is, child support payments, the biggest increase, children over 12 getting 16 euros extra out of this budget, up to 78 a week, children under 12 getting 58 euros a week extra, 10 euros in terms of job seekers benefit loans, 10 per week in terms of state pensions and so on. And also then investment in public services, in terms of education, in terms of health, in terms of disability. Yes, we made choices. We made choices. You had your chance. You had your chance. We have made our choices. We prioritise services for people.