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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 27 Jan 2022

Vol. 1017 No. 1

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions

Tá an méid a tharla sna seirbhísí meabhairshláinte i gContae Chiarraí scannalach gan dabht. Ní hamháin gur ligeadh síos na páistí seo ach rinneadh dochar dóibh agus gortaíodh iad. Cuireadh na páistí agus déagóirí seo i mbaol. Tá impleachtaí móra anseo maidir leis an muinín atá ag daoine anois sna seirbhísí meabhairshláinte ar fud an Stáit. Tá géarchéim sna seirbhísí seo agus ní géarchéim ó inniu nó inné í seo. Tá post ann go gcaithfear líonadh agus tá ais-amharc iomlán de dhíth ann anois. Níl sé maith go leor go bhfuil saolta agus sláinte ár bpáistí i mbaol.

The findings of the south Kerry child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, review are shocking. They should be troubling for all of us. Anybody following this story will know how distressing the details are and how devastating this must be for those children and their families who were so let down by the State. Not only were they let down by the State, but they were harmed by the State. Forty-six young people suffered significant harm, with a further 200 put at significant risk. This harm ranged from extreme tiredness to high blood pressure, excessive weight gain and the production of breast milk. Hundreds of children were misdiagnosed. They were put on a dangerous combination of medication. They were left to their own devices with a serious lack of follow-ups or checks about their medications. One family told a colleague of mine that they were so concerned about the changes in their child's behaviour and appearance that they challenged the doctor, only for the doctor to threaten to report them to Tusla. That is disgraceful.

Failures in clinical governance and oversight have had real consequences for the health and well-being of these children. Those consequences will last for a long time. There was no consultant psychiatrist to provide clinical oversight. As soon as a locum consultant, Dr. Sharma, was appointed, he saw the problems immediately. He must be credited for the fast, decisive action that he took as a whistleblower. The treatment that he received as a whistleblower needs to be investigated. He claims that he was asked to take time off and reassigned from his clinical role to administrative duties. He resigned because he felt his position was undermined and that needs to be examined.

I welcome that there will be audits of adherence to clinical guidelines and prescription practices. My colleague Deputy Ward and Sinn Féin have called on the Government to do this since March of last year. It has belatedly agreed to do this in the last week. That is not enough. It is only three years since three consultant psychiatrists resigned from CAMHS in Waterford and Wexford because of how poor and unsafe the conditions were due to understaffing. Yesterday, we learned that more than 50 children were inappropriately placed in adult psychiatric units over the last two years. They were units that were unfit and unsafe for young people. It is not just one person or one area. This is a systemic failure for our young people and patients in many areas across the State. It goes back to understaffing and under-resourcing and substantial vacancies in consultant and nursing posts. This is not the story of today or yesterday. One in five consultant psychiatrist posts is either vacant or filled on a temporary basis. Some of these posts have been vacant for years and years.

This issue has plagued our mental health services for the best part of a decade. In that time, the Tánaiste has been Taoiseach, Tánaiste, and Minister for Health, and throughout that time, he has sat at the Cabinet table. There needs to be a step change from the Government, not more apologies. We want action and for the system to be fixed. What will the Tánaiste do to ensure that child and adolescent mental health services are fit for purpose? Will he ensure that the review that has been commissioned will look not only at the guidelines for prescription practices but also at the capacity and gaps in the service?

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. Speaking as a public representative but also as a doctor, I am disturbed and worried by what I have read and heard about what happened with psychiatric services for children in Kerry. I extend my sympathies to the children who have been affected and to their families. What it appears has happened is very serious, including misdiagnosis and overdiagnosis of psychiatric conditions, with children being put on medicines inappropriately and those medicines not being monitored appropriately. These are basic failures of medical care that simply cannot be defended. They should not have happened and should have been identified and acted on much sooner than they were. The most important thing that we can do as a State and health service is to make sure we put in place the services and supports that the children and families need so that we can, if at all possible, rectify and remedy the harm that was done. That will range from good quality psychiatric care for the children who need it to other supports for families to help them manage and deal with what has happened.

The Deputy will be aware that the report has been sent to the gardaí, who may have a role in this, and also to the Medical Council. Ultimately, only the Medical Council has the authority to sanction medical practitioners, if that is appropriate. As the Deputy knows as a Member of this Dáil, having been part of many budget debates, the budget for mental health is now more than €1 billion a year. It has increased dramatically in recent years, by 20% or 30% in the last few years alone. Money and resources do not always solve problems on their own. It can be very difficult to fill consultant posts, even when we are willing to offer a contract worth over €200,000 a year, which is the Sláintecare contract.

The Deputy's own party has been involved in running the health services in Northern Ireland for over 20 years. He will be aware of the difficulties that arise with recruiting specialist staff, not just in this jurisdiction, but also in Northern Ireland and indeed globally.

My thoughts are with the families and children affected by this. To learn of the systemic failings in their care is devastating. I can only imagine how distressing and upsetting it is for the families involved. An integral part of this process was open disclosure in action. Open disclosure has happened on this occasion in a way that is perhaps better than in the past. One of the first things that was done was to provide 240 young people identified as having had deficits in their care, and their families, with meetings. The HSE apologised to each individual at these meetings, and also in writing, for any harm caused. It is clear from the review that there were significant failings in the care provided to children and young people at multiple levels of the system. There were also failings of clinical oversight.

The report has made findings in regard to these and there are recommendations to improve services. The HSE has considered the report locally and nationally and has accepted all of its recommendations. Work is under way to implement it. That will be monitored by the Government. Among the recommendations identified are an assessment of reconfiguration of the service and a full nationwide audit of compliance with CAMHS operational guidelines by all CAMHS teams to make sure that similar problems are not happening in other parts of the country, which I know people will be concerned about. As Deputy Doherty mentioned, a prescribing audit will be conducted for each of the 72 CAMHS teams nationally. There are 72 CAMHS teams across the country and there will be a prescribing audit in each case to see if similar issues might have arisen in other parts of the country. We do not believe that is the case but we want to assure ourselves that it is not the case.

As I mentioned, this is not the story of one location, one doctor, one problem or one scandal. This has been going on for years now. The Tánaiste could be forgiven if he was just coming into office and he had an approach or a view on how to fix this but he has been in government for ten years. He has been at the Cabinet table as Minister for Health, Taoiseach and Tánaiste. He could have given the same script, speech or response three years ago when a psychiatrist resigned from the south east because it was unsafe and unsound in terms of CAMHS. We have issues with capacity and that is why children are being put into adult services. Children are being put into adult beds which are not fit for purpose. This has been condemned by the Ombudsman for Children but there is no action.

There is an issue in terms of the contract but the Government created a two-tier contract. Pay cuts were made that have not been reversed. Will the review include an examination of capacity issues? There are capacity issues in the south east, in the north west and right across the State. There are 3,065 children on CAMHS waiting lists. More than 800 of those children have been waiting for six months and over 300 of them have been waiting for a year. These are children with mental health problems that are not being supported by the State. Will there be any step change from Government in how we treat young people with mental health problems?

I am a little disappointed that the Deputy has chosen to try to make this issue, which is very sensitive, into a party political one and to try to personalise it politically. I would remind him that while he may pretend to claim otherwise, Sinn Féin is very much an establishment party. In the past 20 years, his party has been in government on this island as long as my party has been. His party has co-chaired a government that is in charge of health services in Northern Ireland which consistently perform inferiorly to our health services here in terms of patient outcomes. If Deputy Doherty is holding me responsible for any clinical failures in the past ten or 20 years here in this State, then surely his party is responsible for the failures that have occurred at a clinical level north of the Border. Sinn Féin cannot have one standard for us but no standards for itself.

In relation to capacity issues, it is accepted that we have capacity constraints, not just in our mental health services but in our health services generally. Huge investment has gone into our health services in the last couple of years. The Deputy may not be aware of this but we have 40% more doctors in the health service in Ireland now than we had ten years ago, including 40% more consultants. We have more nurses and midwives than ever before, at 40,000, with more per head and more per bed than almost any country in the world.

The Government is failing these children and has been for a decade.

Deputy Alan Kelly, please.

I, along with many others, had one of those moments this morning when everything just stopped as I listened to the radio and heard Maurice O'Connell talking about his son Jason. It was heartbreaking to listen to. The raw honesty meant it was something that one just had to listen to. He spoke of how his son lost his personality and lost his smile. It was one of those moments when one had to not just stop and listen, but also digest. Collectively, we all have to digest what has happened here. Imagine being in the room when Jason's father and sister were told this news and Jason's first response was to ask if it meant he was going to die. We have to deal with this issue.

What really shook me when Maurice O'Connell was telling his story was that there was an implication in the report that this was not catastrophic. Sure, Jason did not lose a leg or an arm but I am sure the Tánaiste will agree that this is catastrophic for these children. We all have to accept that. To say the community in south Kerry is shocked, appalled and worried is an understatement. I know a little bit about that, as the Tánaiste is well aware, because I have a lot of extended family down there. Deputy Griffin, who is behind the Tánaiste, knows that as well. I have spoken to many people down there. In fact, I raised this issue in here a significant period of time ago. I am travelling down there later. There is deep shock at what has happened and concern as to whether people can trust the service.

The real issue, in the context of the audit that will be carried out, is that people who have the resources can go outside the public system and pay for second opinions but the majority of people cannot. In my experience, CAMHS has been very much impenetrable and lacking in scrutiny. There are some very good people in the service but there are silos in operation. This is not due to just one rogue operator but to systemic failure over many years for which we are all guilty, every one of us. We are going to have to deal with this in a certain way. The Tánaiste talked about the audit but we need to go further than that.

Thank you, Deputy. Your time is up.

I want to ask the Tánaiste these questions. Will the audit that is being carried out be a Scally-type review? What is the Government going to do to deal with the massive issues relating to resources and resource gaps around the country? Finally, what process will the Government put in place to deal with the issue of compensation for these families?

I did not have a chance to listen to that interview this morning but a number of people have mentioned it to me already so I will make a point of doing so later today. It is important to hear the voices of patients and parents. It is the best way to understand the impact this has had on them.

Let me not mince my words in any way. I am a politician and a medical doctor. I have come across, as have all of us in this House, a number of examples of failings in care and failures in our health service to provide the standard of care that we would expect for ourselves and our families. This is very much at the more severe end, in my view. What happened here is hard to accept. It is hard to accept that it happened in our country, and that there were huge failures of this nature involving children, in particular. Maybe it should not, but it makes it feel worse that children who were supposed to be helped were harmed. There was overdiagnosis and there were incorrect diagnoses. Children were put on the wrong medicines and left on them for too long, and those medicines were not properly monitored. That just should not happen and it should have been detected and identified much earlier.

It is very disturbing that we find ourselves talking about this and more particularly, that those families are experiencing what they are experiencing at the moment. I do not think any of us can begin to contemplate how they must feel and how worried they must be. The most important thing that we must try to do is to put this right. That means making sure the families and children affected receive the services and supports they need. The HSE needs to be forthcoming and generous in that regard. There will not be any financial barrier from the Government when it comes to providing them with the services and supports they need. We have done that in previous instances, like with CervicalCheck, for example, where packages of support were put in place for families and patients and that needs to be done now.

In terms of the detail of the review and how that is going to work, the Cabinet has not yet had a chance to discuss this. We will discuss it on Tuesday and I know the Minister of State will provide more information on how that is going to operate as soon as she has it. I am sure it is absolutely the case that it will be necessary to provide financial compensation to many of the families affected by this. These are clear failings in care. This was care that was clearly not up to basic professional standards.

I have absolutely no doubt that families will bring cases forward, they will be assessed and compensation payments will need to be made. The Deputy knows from his experiences, as I do from mine, that this is a lot more complicated than it seems because every case is individual. We will need to find a mechanism to do that and we have had some initial discussions on how that can best be done and in a sensitive way.

It cannot just be an audit to see if there are more rogue operators. The audit has to be based on the issue of resources around the country and the fact that CAMHS operates in silos. Most of all, the checks and balances are not there from a clinical point of view. According to the report, "The service has not implemented many of the recommendations of the CAMHS Standard Operating Procedure 2015 or the subsequent CAMHS Operational Guideline 2019." Why? Who is accountable for the fact that this was actually pointed out? It was 2015 and 2019. Why did somebody not ask what was going on there?

In our day-to-day working lives as Deputies, we can see that it is not possible to get to the bottom of required information at critical times. These services were operating as silos. There was no clinical governance. No consultant psychiatrist was appointed since 2016. Did nobody shout "what the hell is going on here?"

Thank you Deputy, time is up.

Will the Tánaiste confirm that any audit will deal with the broader issue - not just how operations happened but the lack of checks and balances and the lack of resources across the system geographically?

The Minister will provide more details on the audit in early course. It is intended that it will be nationwide. It will be an audit of compliance with CAMHS operational guidelines by all CAMHS teams to ensure the other 71 teams have been prescribing appropriately. This will include a random selection of files proportional to the medical caseload from a continuous six-month predefined time period in 2021. Additional clinical resources have been made available to the team in Kerry including an additional doctor. However, the HSE has not been successful in filling the consultant psychiatrist post and recruitment efforts continue. In the meantime, a consultant psychiatrist post from another team attends on site two days per week and provides support through the rest of the week. That is only an interim solution. The Government is willing to offer a Sláintecare contract to consultants with an annual salary of more than €200,000 if they commit to public practice and public practice only. We are working very hard to get agreement from the doctors' representatives to put that in place so that we can offer that contract and perhaps fill posts such as this.

It is almost 41 years since the terrible Stardust nightclub fire in Artane in Dublin, in which 48 young people died and 214 were injured. The Stardust fire is embedded in the memories not only of the people of Dublin, but the collective memory of the nation. There was no one untouched by the fire, from Cork to Donegal, from Sligo to Louth. Everyone knew someone who was at the Stardust nightclub on that terrible Valentine’s night in 1981.

It is incredible that 41 years on from the disaster, the survivors and families are still waiting for justice to this day. They are still waiting for the opening of a fair and transparent inquest into how their loved ones died. It has been accepted that previous inquests and inquiries were flawed and left pertinent questions unanswered. The likes of John and Christine Keegan are no longer with us and will never see justice. They lost two daughters in the Stardust fire, but their daughter Antoinette, who survived the fire, continues to seek justice.

Maurice and Phyllis McHugh, who lost their only daughter, are still waiting for justice, as are so many other families that lost loved ones. It is a principle of law that justice delayed is justice denied. After a wait of 41 years, there can be no doubt that justice continues to be denied to the survivors and families that lost loved ones in the Stardust fire. One of the more recent delays relates to the State's inability to identify an appropriate setting for the inquest. In a city with a multitude of venues to choose from, such a reason for delay is difficult to accept. I am also led to believe that matters pertaining to the transparency of the process are also causing delays.

I am led to believe there was a proposal that the Garda would choose the jury for the inquest. This has been dropped after family objections. The issue that now exists is that the members of the jury will not be paid for their service. This is a major problem as the inquest is expected to last months. I am asking the Tánaiste to work with relevant Departments to identify funding to pay an inquest jury for a few months. It is the least that the State can do considering the unnecessary trauma we have put the survivors and families of the victims through.

On the night of 14 June 2017 in London, England, a horrific fire at a block of apartments killed 72 people. Within two years of that date, a coroner’s inquest had been completed, a Commons select committee hearing on the disaster was completed, the first phase of a two-phase inquiry was completed, and the second and final phase of the inquiry is under way despite delays as a result of Covid-19. All these processes have found significant culpability by public bodies, and there is little criticism of the process. Compare that to the Stardust fire inquiries here: there is no comparison. There can be little doubt that the British Government's response to the Grenfell Tower fire was respectful and delivered truth and justice. It did not shirk from seeking out those responsible. It was not compromised by uncomfortable truths. We all know that a proper and transparent inquest into the Stardust nightclub fire will reveal facts that will discomfort elements of the political establishment in this country.

When the findings are compared to previous flawed inquiries, questions will be asked, but that is no reason to deny the survivors and families of the victims justice after 40 years. This cannot continue any longer.

I am asking the Tánaiste for the sake of the survivors and families of victims of the Stardust nightclub fire, to make a commitment to the House that the inquiry into Stardust will be delayed no more. Will the Tánaiste assure both this House and the nation that the continued trauma caused to the survivors and families by delay after delay, excuse after excuse, will come to an end? Will he do all in his power to bring about a just and timely commencement of the inquiry without further delay?

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. I wish to extend once again my sympathies and condolences to the families affected by the Stardust tragedy and all who have followed this issue down the years. The decision to carry out these inquests was made by the Attorney General in the last Government, Séamus Woulfe, who acceded to the request by the families that the matter should be reopened and that inquests should be held. I led that Government at the time and very much agreed with the decision he made. That was the first time in a very long time that a Government had responded to the request by families that it be done.

We are committed as a Government to ensuring that the Stardust inquest continues in a safe and suitable environment in 2022. This might be made more simple in the coming weeks because of the easing of the public health restrictions. There are plans to secure a new venue for the inquests to be continued by the Dublin coroner when the contract on the bespoke courtroom in the RDS expires in February. The matter is actively being worked on with the assistance of the Office of Public Works, OPW, and the Government intends that the situation will be resolved as soon as possible. To date, nine pre-inquest hearings have been completed and the tenth is expected to take place on 2 February.

The Stardust fire was a national tragedy that has left a particular legacy of pain for many people in north Dublin. I sympathise greatly with the families of the 48 young people tragically killed in the fire. As the Deputy will be aware, the conduct of inquests is independent and has to be independent of the Government. It is entirely a matter for the senior Dublin coroner, Dr. Myra Cullinane. Her independence in relation to such matters is set out in the Coroners Acts and the Government cannot interfere with her work. Dr. Cullinane has begun her work and nine pre-inquest hearings have been completed to date, the ninth having taken place on 19 January, and the tenth scheduled for 2 February. The Department of Justice has also developed a website for the inquest, assigned additional staff to the office of the Dublin coroner and facilitated the appointment of legal and expert guidance to support the coroner in her work.

During 2021, a bespoke courtroom was built in the RDS to facilitate the inquests. That contract will expire soon. We recognise that this is a very sensitive situation and want to assure the families that we are committed to ensuring a new venue is in place to permit the inquest to be continued by the coroner. Families can be assured that the matter is being actively worked on with the assistance of the OPW.

We are all here today in a political arena. It is true to say that our politics stem from humanity. Before we are politicians we are human beings. We feel love and pain, and we feel the love and pain felt by others. Today I ask the Tánaiste, as a caring man, to take a personal lead in bringing about an immediate and unhindered commencement of the inquest into the Stardust nightclub fire.

Antoinette Keegan has asked me to say that her mother, on her deathbed, pleaded with her children never to give up until a proper and fair inquest is held into how she lost her two daughters, Mary and Martina.

Antoinette said she would never give up. She believes the inquest, with compassionate commitment from the Tánaiste, will happen under his watch. The problems that currently exist are easily surmounted, including the failure to identify an appropriate and secure location for the holding of the inquest. The State has ownership of many buildings in the city that are appropriate. I ask the Tánaiste to intervene personally by working with relevant Departments to ensure the simple task of identifying the venue is carried out within the next two weeks. Finally, I am appealing with the Tánaiste, with his considerable powers and obvious humanity, to follow the process to the commencement of an inquest with a personal interest to ensure no more obstacles cause further delays, mistrust and hurt.

I thank the Deputy. The timing of the inquest is a matter for the senior Dublin coroner Dr. Myra Cullinane and it is not possible for Government to interfere in her work. However, it is the wish of Government that these inquests should start as soon as possible. I mentioned that pre-inquest hearings have already taken place. The OPW, which is a branch of Government, is working with the coroner to try to find a suitable location when the RDS takes that space back next month. We will work on that and I am sure it can be achieved.

On the request from Phoenix Law Solicitors to pay the jurors serving on the inquest, that would be unusual. Part of the idea behind a jury is they are a jury of your peers and not salaried or waged. However, this is an unusual situation given the inquest will go on for so long. Thus, the Minister for Justice is currently considering that and will make a response when she has a chance to do so.

The EU has a proposal to bring gas and nuclear in under the green banner. I do not have a problem with it where gas is concerned. However, the fact is we are relying on gas coming from Russia and it is like a tap at the moment, in that it can be turned up or down at any stage. US President Joe Biden announced yesterday they were going to do all in their power to ensure Europe was going to be okay and bring in liquefied natural gas, LNG. Ironically enough, Ireland as a country and the Government have decided that they are going to block a proposed LNG terminal. Yesterday, I listened in astonishment to the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, speaking on the radio about offshore wind. While I have no problem with offshore wind, at the moment it produces 1% of our energy. With the best will in the world it is nine or ten years away.

The reality is that in March 2020 a litre of green diesel for a tractor cost between 41 cent and 42 cent for the farming community, the contractors who do the work and indeed the builders around the country who work machines for building houses. Yesterday, it cost between 92 cent and 94 cent in bulk. For the people who drive to work every day, white diesel today costs €1.68 and petrol €1.78. These are people who, as the Tánaiste has said before, get up early in the morning and go to work. I fully agree with looking after the people who are on low incomes, such as those on the fuel allowance, and there has been much talk of that. However, what is this Government's plan? I do not mean eight years down the line when we get the offshore turbines. It is not going to happen tomorrow. What is our plan for the next three to six months for the farmer whose fertiliser has now gone from €350 or €400 depending on the type to €870 or €970, again dependent on type? What is going to happen the contractor who cuts the silage for the farmer with the Government putting in another carbon tax in May on green diesel? Bear in mind white diesel in 2020 was €1.20. Green diesel is going to be €1, from what we can see, over the coming weeks. What is going to happen to the people who get up early in the morning and drive to work, bearing in mind that we have not the facility for the LNG and that we basically brought in legislation in the previous Dáil that said there would be no more exploration? If the EU puts gas under the green energy banner, will there be exploration then? Will the legislation be changed so Ireland can do that? Are we going to put in the LNG stations so we can take it in? What are we going to do for those people who get up early in the morning and are now paying exorbitant rates to produce food if they are farmers or to go to work if they are consumers?

On gas supplies, I had my Department look at this for me the other day. Ireland does not use very much Russian gas. Pretty much half our gas comes from our own supplies in the Corrib gas field and the other half comes from Britain. Most of that either comes from Britain, Norway or Qatar. The gas comes from Qatar on ships to LNG terminals in Britain and then comes across the pipelines into Ireland. Thus, while we do not have an LNG terminal, we use LNG. It just comes in from Britain rather than coming into one of our ports. While any potential reduction or cut off in Russian gas would not directly hit supplies here, there would of course be a knock-on effect because if the supply goes down globally, the price will go up globally.

On LNG, I understand there is a planning application in from a private company, New Fortress Energy, to build an LNG terminal in north Kerry. The Government is not supporting that project because we believe the future is in renewable energy and hydrogen but we are not going to block it either. There is a planning process and if the company gets planning permission and can finance its project then it will be able to proceed. It is not the case the Government is blocking it but we have decided not to support it actively because we do not think long-term 30- or 40-year investments in fossil fuels of this nature make sense. The same thing applies to exploration. There are already many existing licences and those licences stand. People can use them. If more gas is discovered as a consequence of exploration on foot of those licences that gas will be brought ashore. We do not think it makes sense to issue new licences that would not be acted on for decades, perhaps, because we do not want to be taking that gas out in 30 or 40 years' time when we will have the alternative sources of energy we aim to have.

On the general issue of fuel prices and the cost of living, everyone in Government appreciates the cost of living is rising and that we are seeing levels of inflation at 5% and 6%, which we have not seen in 20 years. We used to see them a lot but we have not for about 20 years and that is creating a real squeeze. It is really affecting family budgets, creating a real squeeze for many families, increasing business costs and also having a significant impact on people on low incomes who, if they have to choose to spend more on petrol, diesel or energy, then have to choose to spend less on things like groceries, for example. That has a real impact. That is why I was an early advocate, as far back as last June, of ensuring we had a welfare, pensions and tax package in the last budget. The best way to help people with the cost of living is to increase their incomes, increase their take-home pay and give them the discretion as to how they spend their money. That is why I signed off on that increase in the minimum wage. It is why pay is being increased in the public service. It is why we had a welfare, pensions and tax package which many people actually opposed at the time. We appreciate we need to do more. One part of that is the energy credit that is being worked on at the moment.

It might be worthwhile for the Tánaiste to go back to his Department to look at the amount of gas we are getting from the UK or from Scotland for the simple reason that England, if you read the statistics and the facts, is in a slight bit of bother in relation to it, even though it has its own.

On the second part of the Tánaiste's answer, yes, there were social welfare increases and, yes, there were tax breaks and changes to the minimum wage but the reality of it is that at the moment the general household will probably be down €2,000 to €3,000 between driving to work, maybe doing a bit of farming and buying fertiliser. Where is this going to come from? What plan has the Government? It is lovely to talk about what the Tánaiste believes about the next 40 years. I do not have a problem with him on that, in the context of exploration, having LNG terminals or whatever. That is fine.

What I am talking about is not 40 years, not the eight years referenced by the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications yesterday or two years. It is about the next six months and getting the people of this country over the torture they are going through with the cost of living and fuel prices. What is the Government doing for those people? What is the plan?

As the Deputy rightly acknowledged, the budget provided for a social welfare package and a pension increase across the board, in addition to targeted increases for those who need them most, in particular, the fuel and living alone allowances. The budget also provided for reductions in income tax, increases in tax credits and widening of the tax bands so that people on middle incomes who are also struggling with the increased cost of living would get something. In that way, we made sure that somebody who is not getting a pay increase from his or her employer at least got something. That is why we were so determined to have an income tax package.

I remind Members who are complaining about the high cost of living that they are the same people who voted against the budget and those income tax reductions in this House. They complain about the fact that we have a high cost of living and yet would have middle income people earn less and take home less each day. If the Opposition parties were in the Government, the average middle income family would have €800 less a year in their pockets every year.

That is the reality of that.

There has also been the real rent freeze of 2% or less, the freeze on childcare fees, in addition to improvements to the Student Universal Support Ireland grant, which will come in later in the year. As I said, when it comes to the specific issue of energy costs, the energy credit will be legislated for quite soon. We will deduct it from people's bills, hopefully, by the end of March. We are looking at other mechanisms to help because we appreciate that the cost is very high.

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