Irish energy customers face price gouging as big companies make bumper profits at the expense of hard pressed households, the Dáil has heard.
The Sinn Féin leader said the Budget was written as though the cost of living crisis was a thing of the past but major energy price hikes had just been announced.
Speaking during Leaders Questions, Mary Lou McDonald accused the Government of doing nothing to pay one single bill or to ease the pressure for households.
She asked the Taoiseach to set out what Government will do "to end the rip off?".
In the Budget last week, there was no announcement of any one-off energy credits next year.
Between April 2022 and February 2025, Irish households received nine credits to their electricity bills, worth €1,500 and costing the State almost €3 billion.
Micheál Martin said the Budget focused on those with the lowest incomes and it provided funding to improve public services, which would benefit everyone.
He added that housing is the biggest issue facing the country and the Government has provided funding for the delivery of up to 20,000 social homes.
He said there had to be a serious discussion around consistent poverty and efforts to tackle depravation.
Energy companies would factor into their prices the universal electricity credits if they were provided by Government every year, he said.
Housing system 'broken' - Bacik
During Leaders Questions, Labour leader Ivana Bacik said the housing system is broken and that the Government has presided over this.
She asked the Taoiseach to consider a ban on evictions this winter especially where there are children involved.
Ms Bacik said that there has been a shift to renting as homeownership rates are dropping but renters are not protected.
"There was nothing in last week's budget to offer that radical housing policy reset that is so badly needed," she said.
She said that there are thousands of people in the rental sector who lack substantial protections.
"Renters have far too few rights in Ireland and the relationship with the landlord is defined by the existence of toothless regulator and the threat of eviction."
Ms Bacik said landlords still have rights to evict tenants if they need the property for a family member or need to sell it.
She said the tenant in situ scheme was supposed to protect renters but the funding is not certain.
"I'm asking you Taoiseach will you consider this winter, a ban at least on child evictions because there are over 5,000 children in Ireland now homeless."
Responding, Mr Martin said that the bottom line was supply.
He said continuing with eviction bans and rent freezes will suppress the supply of housing, adding that judicial reviews were paralysing the system.
"We want to get apartments built and the first resort of public representatives from the Labour and others parties is to go and get a judicial review… which is going to delay progress six to eight months," he said.
Mr Martin also said that it is beginning to undermine the democratic process.
The Government is doing all it can to get more houses and apartments built, he said, and they will continue to do that.
Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns also raising housing in the Dáil, saying that the Government's housing policies have failed and that new thinking is needed.
She said the Budget showed that the coalition was throwing more public money at developers in the desperate hope that the market will deliver.
The Taoiseach rejected the accusation and he added that housing delivery was significantly up on where it was five years ago.
He also said that the Government's new housing plan would be published within five or six weeks.
