I want to express my condolences on the sad passing of a wonderful friend, Seamus Carroll. He was a true gentleman and there is a sense of gloom around the House this morning. I wish his wife and family all the very best.
I also want to mention iarchomhairleoir Seamus O'Donnell from Contae Phort Láirge.
The Chief Whip would have known him and worked with him for many years. He was a special, dedicated, hard-working county councillor for the ten years he spent on Waterford City and County Council. He was a community activist. Gaeilge was a big love as well as many other issues. Serving people and his community was his motto. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis for both men.
As we approach another budget, families, workers, farmers, hauliers and a lot of small business people – nearly everyone – are really frustrated with the Government’s approach to helping people in this crisis. Following the fuel protests and growing public anger, the Government introduced limited temporary measures. They were welcomed by the people but now when we see the price of diesel again at €2.20, and even €2.30 in places, they are like snow off a ditch. They are gone and there is no impact at all from them. The reality is fuel is not a luxury. It is a necessity. Workers need to get to work. Farmers need machinery to plough and till their lands and provide food, which is really important, and have vehicles to operate. Carers need to visit vulnerable people. Small businesses are squeezed to the limit. The cost of transport is just crippling everybody. Above all, there is the home heating oil. Pensioners and ordinary families are trying to fill their tanks at double the price of last year and worse. It is really unthinkable.
The Government continues to pile costs onto motorists through carbon taxes while taking an enormous share of the profit paid at the pump. We must look at that figure. Where a litre of fuel costs €2.15, the Taoiseach’s Government is taking approximately 91 cent from every litre through excise duty, carbon tax levies and VAT. He has his hand in the people’s pockets every day of the week - himself and the Tánaiste, Simon Harris. It is time he took it out of it and gave fair play to the people. Fair play is fine play with me. They need fair play. They do not want fine play but they need fair play. They need to be respected here in the crisis they are in, especially in rural Ireland when we do not have public transport. Cars and vans are a necessity, not a luxury. They have to have them. The Taoiseach’s obsession, when he was in government with the Green Party, with the carbon tax and everything else has to be rethought, re-examined and totally stopped for the present time to have further evaluation because the money, or an awful lot of it, is not going back into retrofitting, as I have pointed out here before.
Does the Taoiseach accept that the carbon tax must be halted rather than increased and that we must give meaningful supports? Talk in the media of €7.50 for pensioners is not acceptable. They need a decent modicum of a respectable increase to allow them to have a modicum of living that should be available to them and is not.
