Financial Resolution No. 5 - Excise - Mineral Oil Tax – Dáil Éireann (34th Dáil) – Tuesday, 6 Oct 2026

Financial Resolution No. 5 - Excise - Mineral Oil Tax

An Ceann Comhairle

Financial Resolutions No. 5 to 7, inclusive, will be discussed together.

Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Deputy James Browne)

I move:

THAT for the purposes of the tax charged by virtue of section 95 of the Finance Act 1999 (No. 2 of 1999), that Act be amended, with effect as on and from 7 October 2026 by the substitution of the following for Schedule 2 to that Act:

“SCHEDULE 2

Rates of Mineral Oil Tax

With effect as on and from:	Light Oil: Rates per 1,000 litres			Heavy Oil: Rates per 1,000 litres			Liquefied Petroleum Gas: Rates per 1,000 litres				Vehicle gas: Rate per megawatt hour at gross calorific value
	Petrol	Aviation gasoline	Used as a propellant	Used for air navigation	Used for private pleasure navigation	Kerosene used other than as a propellant	Fuel oil	Other heavy oil	Used as a propellant	Other liquefied petroleum gas
10 March 2022	€474.11	€474.11	€413.51	€413.51	€413.51	€84.84	€118.01	€120.55	€118.27	€54.68	€9.36
1 April 2022	€465.98	€465.98	€405.38	€405.38	€405.38	€84.84	€118.01	€120.55	€118.27	€54.68	€9.36
1 May 2022	€465.98	€465.98	€405.38	€405.38	€405.38	€103.83	€141.12	€111.14	€130.52	€66.93	€9.36
12 October 2022	€483.34	€483.34	€425.45	€425.45	€425.45	€103.83	€141.12	€111.14	€130.52	€66.93	€9.36
1 May 2023	€483.34	€483.34	€425.45	€425.45	€425.45	€122.83	€164.23	€131.47	€142.76	€79.17	€9.36
1 June 2023	€532.12	€532.12	€466.10	€466.10	€466.10	€122.83	€164.23	€140.28	€142.76	€79.17	€9.36
1 September 2023	€589.03	€589.03	€506.75	€506.75	€506.75	€122.83	€164.23	€149.09	€142.76	€79.17	€9.36
11 October 2023	€606.39	€606.39	€526.83	€526.83	€526.83	€122.83	€164.23	€149.09	€142.76	€79.17	€9.36
1 April 2024	€638.91	€638.91	€551.22	€551.22	€551.22	€122.83	€164.23	€163.96	€142.76	€79.17	€9.36
1 May 2024	€638.91	€638.91	€551.22	€551.22	€551.22	€141.82	€187.34	€184.30	€155.01	€91.42	€10.13
1 August 2024	€671.43	€671.43	€575.61	€575.61	€575.61	€141.82	€187.34	€199.17	€155.01	€91.42	€10.13
9 October 2024	€688.78	€688.78	€595.68	€595.68	€595.68	€141.82	€187.34	€199.17	€155.01	€91.42	€10.13
1 May 2025	€688.78	€688.78	€595.68	€595.68	€595.68	€160.81	€210.45	€219.50	€167.25	€103.66	€11.48
8 October 2025	€706.14	€706.14	€615.76	€615.76	€615.76	€160.81	€210.45	€219.50	€167.25	€103.66	€11.48
25 March 2026	€584.18	€584.18	€453.15	€453.15	€453.15	€160.81	€210.45	€193.06	€167.25	€103.66	€11.48
15 April 2026	€502.88	€502.88	€371.85	€371.85	€371.85	€160.81	€210.45	€172.14	€167.25	€103.66	€11.48
14 October 2026	€502.88	€502.88	€371.85	€371.85	€371.85	€122.83	€210.45	€172.14	€167.25	€103.66	€11.48
28 February 2027	€543.53	€543.53	€428.76	€428.76	€428.76	€122.83	€210.45	€219.50	€167.25	€103.66	€11.48
8 April 2027	€584.18	€584.18	€485.67	€485.67	€485.67	€122.83	€210.45	€219.50	€167.25	€103.66	€11.48
1 May 2027	€658.44	€658.44	€570.78	€570.78	€570.78	€122.83	€256.68	€239.83	€191.74	€128.15	€14.20
30 June 2027	€723.49	€723.49	€635.83	€635.83	€635.83	€122.83	€256.68	€239.83	€191.74	€128.15	€14.20
13 October 2027	€740.85	€740.85	€655.90	€655.90	€655.90	€122.83	€256.68	€260.16	€191.74	€128.15	€14.20
1 May 2028	€740.85	€740.85	€655.90	€655.90	€655.90	€122.83	€279.79	€280.49	€203.98	€140.39	€15.56
11 October 2028	€758.21	€758.21	€675.98	€675.98	€675.98	€122.83	€279.79	€280.49	€203.98	€140.39	€15.56
1 May 2029	€758.21	€758.21	€675.98	€675.98	€675.98	€122.83	€302.90	€300.83	€216.23	€152.64	€16.91
10 October 2029	€773.25	€773.25	€693.38	€693.38	€693.38	€122.83	€302.90	€300.83	€216.23	€152.64	€16.91
1 May 2030	€773.25	€773.25	€693.38	€693.38	€693.38	€122.83	€322.93	€318.45	€226.84	€163.25	€18.09

by the substitution of the following for Schedule 2A to that Act (as amended by section 2(2)(b) of the Finance Act 2026 (No. 24 of 2026)):

“SCHEDULE 2A

Carbon Charge

With effect as on and from:	Light Oil: Rates per 1,000 litres			Heavy Oil: Rates per 1,000 litres			Liquefied Petroleum Gas: Rates per 1,000 litres				Vehicle gas: Rate per megawatt hour at gross calorific value
	Petrol	Aviation gasoline	Used as a propellant	Used for air navigation	Used for private pleasure navigation	Kerosene used other than as a propellant	Fuel oil	Other heavy oil	Used as a propellant	Other liquefied petroleum gas
1 May 2021	€77.52	€77.52	€89.66	€89.66	€89.66	€84.84	€103.23	€90.81	€54.68	€54.68	€6.06
13 October 2021	€94.87	€94.87	€109.74	€109.74	€109.74	€84.84	€103.23	€90.81	€54.68	€54.68	€6.06
1 May 2022	€94.87	€94.87	€109.74	€109.74	€109.74	€103.83	€126.34	€111.14	€66.93	€66.93	€7.41
12 October 2022	€112.23	€112.23	€129.81	€129.81	€129.81	€103.83	€126.34	€111.14	€66.93	€66.93	€7.41
1 May 2023	€112.23	€112.23	€129.81	€129.81	€129.81	€122.83	€149.45	€131.47	€79.17	€79.17	€8.77
11 October 2023	€129.59	€129.59	€149.89	€149.89	€149.89	€122.83	€149.45	€131.47	€79.17	€79.17	€8.77
1 May 2024	€129.59	€129.59	€149.89	€149.89	€149.89	€141.82	€172.56	€151.81	€91.42	€91.42	€10.13
9 October 2024	€146.94	€146.94	€169.96	€169.96	€169.96	€141.82	€172.56	€151.81	€91.42	€91.42	€10.13
1 May 2025	€146.94	€146.94	€169.96	€169.96	€169.96	€160.81	€195.67	€172.14	€103.66	€103.66	€11.48
8 October 2025	€164.30	€164.30	€190.04	€190.04	€190.04	€160.81	€195.67	€172.14	€103.66	€103.66	€11.48
14 October 2026	€164.30	€164.30	€190.04	€190.04	€190.04	€122.83	€195.67	€172.14	€103.66	€103.66	€11.48
1 May 2027	€181.65	€181.65	€210.11	€210.11	€210.11	€122.83	€241.90	€192.47	€128.15	€128.15	€14.20
13 October 2027	€199.01	€199.01	€230.18	€230.18	€230.18	€122.83	€241.90	€212.80	€128.15	€128.15	€14.20
1 May 2028	€199.01	€199.01	€230.18	€230.18	€230.18	€122.83	€265.01	€233.13	€140.39	€140.39	€15.56
11 October 2028	€216.37	€216.37	€250.26	€250.26	€250.26	€122.83	€265.01	€233.13	€140.39	€140.39	€15.56
1 May 2029	€216.37	€216.37	€250.26	€250.26	€250.26	€122.83	€288.12	€253.47	€152.64	€152.64	€16.91
10 October 2029	€231.41	€231.41	€267.66	€267.66	€267.66	€122.83	€288.12	€253.47	€152.64	€152.64	€16.91
1 May 2030	€231.41	€231.41	€267.66	€267.66	€267.66	€122.83	€308.15	€271.09	€163.25	€163.25	€18.09

IT is hereby declared that it is expedient in the public interest that this Resolution shall have statutory effect under the provisions of the Provisional Collection of Taxes Act 1927 (No. 7 of 1927).

Financial Resolution No. 5 provides for a number of measures in relation to mineral oil tax. First, it provides for an extension of the temporary excise rate reductions on auto fuels and marked gas oil, MGO, otherwise known as green diesel, and introduces a revised schedule for the unwinding of these temporary measures. Second, it defers the 14 October carbon tax rate increases on auto fuels until 1 May 2027 as well as deferring the increase on other fuels which were scheduled to increase on 14 October. Third, it further defers the 1 May 2026 mineral oil tax carbon component rate increases until 1 May 2027 and this includes retaining the current reduced rate of carbon tax levied on marked gas oil. Finally, it provides for a reduction in the carbon tax rate on kerosene home heating oil to 2023 levels.

Financial Resolution No. 5 provides an extension of the full current temporary excise rate reductions on auto diesel, petrol and marked gas oil from 1 November 2026 until 28 February 2027. This, along with the deferral of the carbon tax on auto fuels, means the rates of mineral oil tax will remain reduced on a VAT-inclusive basis by 30 cent per litre for auto diesel, 25 cent per litre for petrol and 5.4 cent per litre of green diesel until the last day of February 2027. This financial resolution also introduces a revised schedule for the unwinding of these temporary measures on a graduated basis from 28 February 2027 onwards. This phased restoration will take place in four stages. The following excise restorations are on a VAT-inclusive basis.

For clarity we have also included the mineral oil tax carbon component increases on the three affected fuels - on 28 February a restoration of 5 cent per litre for petrol, 7 cent per litre for auto diesel and 5.4 cent per litre of green diesel; on 8 April a restoration of 5 cent per litre for petrol and 7 cent per litre for auto diesel; and on 1 May a restoration of 7 cent per litre for petrol and 8 cent per litre for auto diesel. On this date the deferred 14 October carbon tax increase on auto fuels will also take place adding an additional 2.1 cent per litre for petrol and 2.5 cent per litre of auto diesel. The 1 May 2026 deferred carbon tax increase on green diesel will also occur adding around 2.3 cent to the price per litre of green diesel while on 30 June a final restoration of 8 cent per litre for petrol and 8 cent per litre for diesel will occur. As per this financial resolution the 1 May 2026 carbon tax increase on green diesel will now take place on 13 October 2027 around the time of the next budget.

Financial Resolution No. 5 also provides for a reduction in the carbon tax rate of kerosene or home heating oil to 2023 levels. That is €48.50 per tonne of CO2 emitted. This is equivalent to around 14 cent per litre. The Government has decided not to proceed with future carbon tax increases on kerosene, otherwise known as home heating oil. This will result in a trajectory of carbon tax increases being halved for kerosene by 2030. Compared to the previously legislated for 1 May 2027 carbon tax increase on kerosene home heating oil, this reduction will save households around €86 per 1,000 litre fill. This financial resolution also postpones any carbon tax increase on MGO until 1 May next year when it will increase by €7.50 per tonne of CO2 emitted or around 2.3 cent per litre.

This financial resolution further defers the carbon tax rate increase on all other fuels which were due to increase on 1 May 2026 until 1 May 2027. At this date the carbon component will increase from the current €63.50 per tonne of CO2 emitted to €78.50 per tonne. For fuels scheduled to increase on 14 October 2026, this will now be deferred until 1 May 2027.

The decisions taken by the Government in the past few days provide certainty for households and businesses coming into the winter. As the Government has done throughout this crisis, we have taken decisions based on the circumstances that presented themselves. Our commitment to the principles of the carbon tax remain. As we have consistently stated, the carbon tax is a progressive policy tool and it is an important part of our climate action strategy. The decision to reduce the carbon tax on kerosene pauses budget increases on auto fuels and other increases has not been taken lightly. The carbon tax trajectory provides incentives to industry to decarbonise by virtue of the certainty.

In light of the significant turbulence we are seeing in energy markets, we have decided to defer the increases on auto fuels and some other fuels on a temporary basis. It is not possible to offset all of the recent increases, which are driven by market factors, using the tax system. However, these measures will provide significant mitigation, supporting households and businesses experiencing the most acute impacts of increases in fuel.

Financial Resolution No. 6 on natural gas carbon tax provides for the reduction of the natural gas carbon tax rate to 2023 levels from 14 October 2026 onwards. To assist households that heat their homes with natural gas, this financial resolution reduces the natural gas carbon tax to €48.50 per tonne of CO2 emitted, effective from 14 October 2026. The Government has decided not to proceed with future carbon tax increases on natural gas. This results in the trajectory of carbon tax increases being halved for home heating oil by 2030. The cost of this measure for 2027 is around €62 million on a VAT-inclusive basis. It is estimated that this measure will benefit over 600,000 households that use natural gas as their main heating fuel. Over the course of its lifetime, the cost of the measure will total around €375 million.

The carbon tax trajectory, as set out in the Finance Act 2020, would have seen the natural gas carbon tax increase to €78.50 per tonne of CO2 emitted on 1 May 2027. In effect, based on the previous carbon tax trajectory, this measure will save the average household using the equivalent of 11,000 KWh annually approximately €65. Based on the current rate of €63.50 per tonne of CO2 emitted, which is a result of the previous deferral of the natural gas carbon tax increase by this Government on 1 May 2026, the savings for the average household will be around €32.

Financial Resolution No. 7 provides for the further deferral of the solid fuel carbon tax increase that was originally due to occur on 1 May 2026. This increase has been postponed until 14 October 2026 but it will now take place on 1 May 2027, on which date the solid fuel carbon tax will increase from €63.50 per tonne of CO2 emitted to €78.50 per tonne of CO2 emitted. The postponement of this increase will save customers around 90 cent on a 40 kg bag of coal.

It is not possible to offset all of the energy price increases, which are driven by market factors using the tax system. However, this measure on the solid fuel carbon tax, along with the measures providing for reductions across natural gas, carbon tax and mineral oil tax, will provide significant mitigation this winter, supporting households and businesses that are experiencing the most acute impacts of increases in fuel prices.

An Ceann Comhairle

I thank the Minister. I have 14 Deputies listed to speak in the next 37 minutes. I propose they speak for around two minutes each, starting with Deputy Cullinane and his amendments.

Deputy David Cullinane

I move amendment No. 1:

In Schedule 2, inserted by paragraph (1)(a), to delete from the row dated “14 October 2026” down to and including the row dated “1 May 2030” and substitute the following:

14 October 2026	€421.58	€502.88	€290.55	€371.85	€371.85	€0.00	€210.45	€21.00	€167.25	€103.66	€11.48
1 July 2026	€421.58	€502.88	€290.55	€371.85	€371.85	€0.00	€210.45	€21.00	€167.25	€103.66	€11.48

For the past number of years, at budget time but also on an almost weekly basis, we on this side of the House, certainly those of us in Sinn Féin, have been warning the Government about a real, deep anger out there in relation to the cost-of-living crisis. I genuinely believe that the Government does not listen because if it did, it would present a different budget today.

When we said that anger was worsening, we also warned there would be protests. Again, the Government turned its face to all of the arguments that were made and we ended up with protests. What happened? The Government blamed the protesters and everybody but itself. The reason it blamed the protesters was that it refused to take responsibility for the fact that the Minister and the Government did not do enough to support people during a cost-of-living crisis.

I am conscious that when we are talking about a cost-of-living crisis, it is rents, mortgages, groceries, insurance and across the board, but it is also the cost of fuel - petrol, diesel, home heating oil and all of the other fuels. All the Minister is doing in this financial resolution is extend the temporary reductions. It is the same with the carbon taxes on solid fuel, which he is suspending until 2027. That is not going to be enough.

We will take petrol and diesel first. There are pumps today, as I stand here and the Minister sits there, that are showing €2.20 for a litre of diesel. When it was less than that, the Government was forced to take action. Now it seems to think that it is okay for people to have to pay €2.20. Most of these people, particularly those in rural Ireland, have no option but to have a car. The irony is not lost on them that the same Government stood over an increase in public transport fares in recent times. You really could not make it up.

On green diesel, again, farmers need more support. We have called for a 17 cent reduction on a litre of green diesel. We also called for a further 10 cent cut in a litre of diesel at the pumps as well but, again, the Government has turned its face against that. I can tell the Minister now that farmers will not be happy that the Government has let them down again and has not done enough.

One of the worst things the Government has done in this budget is in regard to home heating oil. People depend on home heating oil to heat their homes. Some of them are in low-income households. We and many others called on the Government to abolish the carbon tax on home heating oil, which would have saved households about €183 on a fill of their tanks. That is what the Government should have done but instead it provided for a quarter of that. Then the Minister, Deputy Simon Harris, said this would save €86 for a fill when it is €43. The finance Minister could not even get the figures right. All of this shows me that, again, the Government is out of touch on these issues.

I can tell the Minister this. He can come into this Chamber and present his budget. We talked earlier about some of the measures. One measure alone will cost the taxpayer €183 million to give the wealthiest in this country relief on their capital gains tax. The Government will also do precious little to support people in relation to a cost-of-living crisis, particularly in regard to home heating oil. That will not be lost on many people watching on.

I am moving the Sinn Féin amendments because I believe a different approach should have been taken on all of these measures. I am deeply disappointed that, again, the Government has gone for a minimalist approach. It is not listening to the extent of the anger out there, particularly in rural Ireland but right across the State.

Deputy Richard O'Donoghue

Today, the Government is going to "suspend". All I am hearing is, "We will suspend this until May 2027". Suspending is not going to work for the Government any more because the people of Ireland saw what happened during the last protest. I was in Foynes with the protesters for five days. The people who put the Government Deputies' fathers and mothers in those seats saw the Government turn its back on them. It did not hear their cries for themselves, their children and grandchildren. Today, the Government is suspending something because of its failure to listen to the hard-working people of Ireland.

I am not talking about young people. I am talking about people who are still working in their 70s and 80s today to try to support their families and make a better life for them. All the Government can do here is "suspend". At the time of the protest, it said it could do nothing. Its members sat on their backsides while people protested who had never protested in their lives. Members of the Minister's party, as well as Members of every other party in this House and those of no party, saw no other option. Never in their lives did these people protest but the Government did not listen. What does that tell the Minister? Now, today, we are going suspend this and that. The Government is trying to take the pressure off itself.

I will touch on green diesel. Last year, it cost 90 cent per litre. I filled one of our tractors the other day. It cost me €436 to fill the tractor. Where does the cost of that go? It goes to the person who wants me to do the work. That cost is after increasing and I got it when the price was at €1.56 per litre. The same people who are working hard now have to pay extra in taxes. The Minister then talks about the people driving to work. It now costs €2.20 per litre for diesel. People are giving the Government up on 50% in taxes. The Government said it could not do anything about this. Whereas it can suspend it today, when the cry came out from the working people of Ireland, it could not do it.

What did it do? It turned the Army on them. That is what it did. It sent out the Army and the Garda. There were gardaí out with us along with their brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers. There were front-line workers out with their mothers and fathers. All these hard-working people were out there and the Government’s answer was that it was going to bully them. It said they were going to do what they were told. No more. It may take us a year or two years, but I can guarantee the history books will be written when the ancestors and all the people who put Government Ministers where they are will realise that all we have is people who have come from a Civil Service background. That is the majority. The ones who are not from there sit above in the back and are like Noddy. It is “Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, miss.” That is all they do. Independent Ireland stood here, and I came here in 2021 when the truckers said they had a problem with diesel, and parked the truck outside for three days.

Deputy Timmy Dooley

There was no tax on it.

Deputy Richard O'Donoghue

Excuse me, Mr. Do-Little. There was tax and insurance on it. He may check the dashboard. He is a sly old thing and tries to do things but, again, people in County Clare know about him. He is seldom seen. When we go back to the system here, he is a very good man. He drives around the country and does everything for everyone else, but nothing for his own.

These are the type of people the Government has inherited. It is their ancestors and the people here today I hope put the Government back on its backside again, and get somebody decent in an area who will support the real working families of these people.

The Government then turns around to the people keeping coal, turf or oil. These are people who do not have an alternative. When the lights went out, and all the people in this country had high-energy heat systems, what did they all have to buy? Check the stats. They have all got small diesel generators in case the power goes out. I am a building contractor. I build houses with the highest energy-saving mechanisms, but people in this House are saying we should create more and more grants. The grants are being eaten up with an oil-based product at an inflatable cost. Since January, there is an increase of 46% for insulation with an oil-based product. The grant systems are actually going into inflation. I am all for making sure houses are better, well-heated and insulated, but we should not push up inflation with costs like that.

All I am going to say is the Government can suspend and defer what it likes but there is only thing that will happen here. As I said, if it takes me a couple of years with Independent Ireland and other people who will help us, I hope Government Ministers are finally suspended from that side of the House. We might eventually get people in here with a work ethic who want to work for people and help their communities, whether they are urban or rural, and value them for what they are rather than tax them out of existence.

Deputy Ken O'Flynn

Ministers have been rolled out on the plinth and in and out of this House today, and have been on every radio show and on social media. Propaganda has been put out from Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and some of the Independents, telling us all about the tax cuts on home heating, oil and gas. This has been celebrated by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael TDs on all of their social media channels. Fair play and well done to them but they forgot to mention coal, briquettes and turf. The worst thing about that is they have been very silent about coal, briquettes and turf. They have not mentioned the increase this year. The Minister has been very sly about it as well, saying there will be no increase in the winter, but in May there will be an increase of 24% on coal and briquettes. That will keep rising until 2030. It will reach 57% by 2030.

For any TD who is worth his or her salt, knows his or her constituency and has stood in people's houses and understood their way of life; who burns coal and briquettes and turf? In my constituency in Cork North-Central, which is 51% urban and 49% rural, I have sat in many a cottage and house throughout the city and county. My experience has been that the people who burn coal and briquettes are older people. Quite often, they are rural people. These are houses that are older whose owners cannot afford the scheme of paying €18,000 to €20,000 for solar panels. They are households that cannot afford to link up to the gas network, or the gas network is not available to them, or which cannot afford to buy thousands of euros worth of barrels of oil or kerosene to heat the house and put in the radiator system. There are houses which were quite often bought in the sixties, or maybe the late sixties or early seventies, by people on a fixed income who have no other choice but to burn coal and briquettes in their home to keep themselves warm. The message from the Minister, who has been very sly about this, has been there have been cuts but actually there has been a freeze for the suburbs and a bill for the countryside. That is very wrong.

We will continue on this side of the House. I have to say I am very disappointed by some Members of the House who are here a very long time to be passing nasty remarks about people. This is an important debate during this particular season, when we are talking about older people and people who are finding it tough. We are all sick of the phrase "choosing between heating and eating”. It is a bit like that phrase used by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil for the last number of months, “people who get up early in the morning”, but genuinely there are people in this country wondering whether to turn on the heating tonight or eat tomorrow morning. That is the truth of it. The Minister may not like to hear it, but we see it in our constituencies. He has been very disingenuous to those older rural communities that are dependent on the briquette and coal.

Deputy Michael Collins

There are rebates in relation to fuel. That took a huge struggle in this country, as we all know. It took people in their thousands hitting the streets and sending a clear message to the Government. Independent Ireland has tried to look at a new model. That was an opportunity for this Government. This budget is very stale; it is more of the same. The Government robs Peter to pay Paul. That is the way it works. That is the way it goes. As I said, there are approximately 350,000 people in ESB arrears who are not going to be happy tonight. That rattle of the letter box is still going to come tomorrow morning with another bill or another threatening letter, same as the mortgage arrears. I do not think most of those people want to be in any of those arrears, but this budget tonight is not going to help them. Tomorrow morning, they are going to go to the fuel station and look at the pump sipping up, whether it is diesel or petrol. They know the Government is taking a huge amount of money in taxes. There has not been a radical look from within Government to make changes.

We put forward that change in Independent Ireland - to take carbon tax completely out of delivery and productivity. That is what we were saying. We need to make it very clear that carbon tax should have been applied to aviation because the budget has to be matched. I respect that. We respect that. We are not here just throwing out figures and walking away, but the Government would not do what we asked. Deputy Fitzmaurice has said so often, and I listened to him with great respect, that this is for the person going out on holidays - it is great and they deserve a break but they do not really have to go - while the mother, father and retired person have to get up tomorrow morning and go to the shop or go to work. They have to use the car and spend the money on the fuel, but the Government is not willing to help them.

The hauliers are on their knees. We know that. Our TDs and councillors were down in Moate with the hauliers and farmers. They are all in a desperate state. I do not think the Government understands that. There is a real disconnect between the Government and the people on the ground. It brings me back to where I was last Saturday. I was in Bantry last Saturday, where there was a 60-year anniversary celebration of the farmers who protested, and left Bantry in their oilskins, tartan trousers and broken boots and marched to Dublin. Fianna Fáil left them 20 days and nights outside Government Buildings.

Fast forward to when the protestors came to Government Buildings a few months ago. What happened? Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil decided to join together and slam the door in their face. Ireland roared and, when Ireland roared, the Government jumped. We offered to be a conduit between the protestors and the Government. We did everything but, no, we were only the bad boys because we were part of the terrible brigade, as the Government was putting them out to be.

Imagine those men in 1966, in torn clothes and with rags hanging over them as there were no tents or anything at that time, who were outside those gates. They were determined. They were determined to deliver for the farmers of this country, and they won a battle. The protestors the Government has been dealing with recently - we have been supportive of them in their objectives to get the message across - will not survive if the Government does not wake up. Businesses are collapsing one by one. The Government is not really grasping it.

I read some of the Tánaiste's report. We all do that. It mentioned importing dirty fossil fuel. Sure, it is dirty fossil fuel, but who is to blame for importing it? The Government is. Did the Government ever think of deciding to have a look at what is outside in Barryroe, having our own fuel and delivering it to our own people to save ourselves tens of millions of euro?

Deputy Ken O'Flynn

Hear, hear.

Deputy Michael Collins

Not at all. Why would we do that? We look across the world and bring it in from across the world. If there is a shortage across the world, we will blame everybody across the world, but nobody wants to talk about what we can deliver, what Barryroe can deliver or what Ireland can deliver in its own backyard. What is going on here is a scandal. There may be a report on it in 20, 30 or 40 years' time.

I look at people and the cost of coal. Deputy O'Flynn said 24% and it is going up in a few months' time and that it will reach 57% by 2030. Who is using coal? It is people who desperately need to heat their home who cannot do so now. They are trying to add a bit of timber to that and every bit of old turf, if they will not be arrested for bringing home a bag of it. They are the genuine people in this country. They are the people who voted for Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. They voted for me as well, but I respect them. I will sit down in the middle of their kitchen, around their fire, and they will tell me and put in old smokeless coal. They might as well use a concrete block. Anyway, they have no choice in the matter, but they will not be able to do that now either. They will not be able to fill the oil tank and they will not be able to buy the bag of coal. That is some legacy that the Government will leave.

The Government came in here today and said it will give a few cent here and there, but it will not look at the real issue. Remove the carbon for the hauliers' sake. Remove the carbon for the farmers' sake. The person buying the products in Dublin said he will benefit from that. They are the people of urban Ireland, but the Government will not look at that. It has its eyes shut. We had the usual wish-wash of an old budget. It is a "Here today, gone tomorrow" type of thing.

Deputy Fitzmaurice said there was a serious hole in the bucket. There was no ass in the bucket with all the leaks. Not at all. God almighty, if it was only a small bit of a leak, I would not mind. It would be a scandal long ago if there was a leak in relation to a budget. I do not know what the Government would call it now. It is a farce. The budget was already announced four or five weeks ago. The only difference is that the Government will announced seven but give eight or nine to make them look like supersonic heroes. The bottom line is that people are suffering. We are not here roaring on the sideline. We are there with them. We actually put forward proposals that would have been brought in in the same budget. It would have applied carbon tax in a different direction. It would have looked after the hardworking men and women, the retired people and the people with disability. The Government has failed them all.

Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice

I will not take too long, as other people need to talk. The Minister talked about changing a culture. I am a long time at the game of machinery. Will he tell me where I will get a 1,000 horsepower harvester that will cut silage but does not use diesel? Will he tell me where I will get a triple mower that will mow the grass? Will he tell me where I will get a tractor to put in front of a fusion baler and do the work that has be done in three weeks without burning green diesel? Will he tell me about culture then? Will he tell me that they have some alternative? The Minister is from an area where they know agriculture fairly well. Will he show me where the gear is? I would love to see it, because it is not there.

We are still going to leave them with a full whack of carbon tax. That is it. That is what we have done. There is no in or out of this one. That is the reality. At least there are electric cars, if people can afford them. A lot of people can only afford a car that costs between €10,000 and €15,000. We need to help people with the purchase of electric cars, but at least there is an alternative we can try to get them to take. We should even be giving them grants for the purchase of second-hand electric vehicles. Will the Minister show the machinery that will do that? Will he show me the digger that will dig out for a house here in Dublin? We will talk about housing as the Minister is responsible for it. Will he show me a 30 tonne digger to develop a site? Will he show me a 40 tonne digger, a bulldozer or a dump-truck for any of the motorways that we are talking about building that will work on electricity or any other fuel other than diesel? We will charge them all carbon tax. That is what we will do. Let us not talk in this House about changing culture when we do not have something different.

I heard the most disheartening thing tonight. We talk about lowering the carbon tax on home heating oil. We should not be ashamed to say it, but a lot of us grew up in two-bedroom houses that had a kitchen, and that was all we had. There was no sitting room. Funny enough, as public representatives, we visit those houses today, especially those of elderly people. They have something that most people do not want to hear about, a back boiler that has a stove that they put a few sods of turf or a bit of coal into. Look what the Government has done with the coal. The Government has told people to go up across the Border and make sure they accompany it down because they can bring whatever they want and they do not pay the carbon tax on it. They have given no relief to those people.

I will not take up people's time. I would love to go through a lot of it but I want to give everyone a fair share. We have just been shown the heartlessness. I ask the Minister to think of those people. A lot of them are old and live in rural areas. We have visited many of them. They have a tongs beside the fire or stove. Tonight, kerosene will come down 5%. They do not have kerosene. They have a circulating pump, a back boiler or the stove. That is how they operate, nice and quietly, but we have forgotten about them today. We need to think and look into ourselves and what we have done.

Deputy Mattie McGrath

I too am very disappointed with this aspect of the budget. The Minister said in his opening remarks that carbon tax is a progressive policy tool. What planet is he on? It is the most insidious, unjust tax that was ever perpetrated on the Irish people. I was picked up when, as a member of the Rural Independent Group, I voted against it down in the convention centre. The Rural Independent Group voted against the slyness and the cynical trick the Government did that day. We did not get much support from any of the parties in this House. The Government put on an incremental increase every year for ten years up to 2030. The Government is coming badly unstuck today. The mud is tipping off the tires like when a person drives onto a road after working in a field. The mud falls off the tires if they have not been cleaned. They sweep the road, as most farmers try to do. The genie is out of the bottle here.

The Government tells us regularly that Europe is going to levy countless billions in fines. It is time that the Government and its MEPs stood up to Ms von der Leyen and their masters in Europe, their masters in the World Economic Forum and the masters all over the world that the Government obeys - anybody but the Irish people. Penalise them. To hell or to Connacht. Cromwell is back. Carbon tax is Oliver Cromwell-type work. The Minister told us we will get retrofitting. I challenged the Taoiseach in the last Government when the figures came out, in reply to a parliamentary question, that there was €790 million that could not be explained and did not go into retrofitting. Like snow on a ditch, it was gone. It has probably gone to the NGOs or the cabals that are out there milking it and pulling this Government by the tail. They are the Government's big friends.

The carbon tax is punitive. It is a disgusting imposition on old people, many of them in their final days, who want to be able to heat their home. All they want is a modicum of heat and comfort. They do not want airtight houses with air-to-water pumps or everything else; they want an ordinary spark in the fire to sit in front of and to put a knob of coal or turf on it. The Minister should talk to the former Minister and Teachta Dála, Éamon Ó Cuív. More times than once in this House, he told the Government that a quarter of the corporation houses in Galway city - I am taking his word for it - were on turf-burning fires. I see in the budget today that millions of euro have been set aside for the removal of stoves.

The lunatics are running the asylum. Remove the stoves? The only thing that worked in the last storm - I believe it was Storm Ophelia - when the ESB was out for weeks in places was the stove and a pile of chip pellets. There were people with air to water, air to air and God knows whatever fandangle but they could not boil a billycan of water, if you know what a billycan is. They were boiled years ago by the council workers at the side of the road. They boiled their eggs in them too and they had a canister of tea, but the Government wants people to be perished, frozen and ostracised. To hell or to Connacht is its motto. I think it is disgusting. The Government has come back on it now for a number of months. The whole lot will come back in with a bang and with gusto in its figures - I listened to the Minister carefully - by October 2027. It is back to where we were.

The farm contractors of Ireland issued a very strong statement tonight. The Government has done nothing for them or for the farmers. The green diesel is a shocking price today. It was 90 cent, roughly, before Christmas last year and now it is up to €1.55 and €1.65. It is shocking. They got nothing, most of the farmers, and the contractors did not get it either. The plant hire, quarries or construction contractors also got no rebate the last time when the Government gave in after the protest. Does the Government want the people to come out again to protest, the way it can turn the Army and the Garda on them? They are ordinary people. Is the Government not watching what is happening all over Europe with its fair-weather friends who do not give a toss about us only make money off us? The Government can find hundreds of millions for the Ukraine war and then it blames the Iranian war for the price of oil. The Government is part and parcel of that Ukraine war for hundreds of millions of people. If President Zelenskyy came over here and he only broke wind, the Government would give him another basket of money, another hundred million.

The Government can find money for everything except the Irish people. It can find billions to waste feeding developers and IPAS centres. Thanks be to God, after two years of fighting, Dundrum is finally going to be closed because every law in the book was broken. Tipperary County Council has egg on its face too. It did not take enforcement and no business from the fire officer or anything else. The Government has towns such as Clones in Monaghan and others destroyed, including towns in Tipperary and around the country, to fill the greedy pockets of greedy actors who have no interest in humanitarian issues or people. It is not like the fine people we sent out to the missions years ago who helped people. These want to fill their pockets as fast as possible and treat people like latter-day slaves.

The carbon tax is the biggest trick. I will not go on much longer because other Members want to get in. I want to rebuke that term - carbon tax and progressive policy. I can think of many other things for it but it is not progressive. It is regressive. It is not a policy and I hope it will not be a policy. It should be got rid of. The Greens are well gone out of Government at last.

Mar fhocal scoir, I also brought forward a motion, along with my rural Independent colleagues, to not block Barryroe. We had investors come in here. We did not meet them in the Houses because of lobbying laws. We met them down the road in a hotel. They would have brought the oil riches over from Barryroe with not a penny cost to the State and then bring it forward, but no, Eamon Ryan had a fantasy that he wanted three ready-mix lorries of cement into the pipe. I do not know if that was ever done but if it was, it was national sabotage. It was vandalism of the highest order and the Minister was part of that Government too.

An Ceann Comhairle

I may have heard some unparliamentary language-----

Deputy Mattie McGrath

Sorry?

An Ceann Comhairle

I may have misheard but I thought the Deputy used unparliamentary language-----

Deputy Mattie McGrath

I said "national sabotage" and "vandalism". I do not know what unparliamentary-----

An Ceann Comhairle

I call on Deputy Danny Healy-Rae. We have seven Deputies left. Please refrain from such language.

Deputy Danny Healy-Rae

I wish to support my colleagues who have spoken about abolishing the carbon tax. I was one of the rural Independent group - I think there were ten of us in all - who voted against the carbon tax a good few years ago. When white diesel, inclusive of VAT and taxes was at €1.70, green diesel was at 95 cent and kerosene was at 95 cent, one would think that the need for carbon tax was then gone to discourage people from using fuels such as green diesel, white diesel and kerosene. The Government is persisting with it notwithstanding the way it has increased. Let us consider white diesel at €1.70. Carbon tax is included in that and was covering all the schemes that the Government said it was delivering, but it is not happy with that. Given the extra that oil is costing, no one would mind paying for the extra cost of the oil or whatever it is, but the 50% that the Government is charging on top of that every day in carbon tax should be gone. It should be well gone by now with the torture people are going through.

Last May, and a couple of weeks ago, the Government promised it would do something for the construction sector and the cost of green diesel. They are guzzling green diesel and it has gone up from 94 cent. It was constant last year but it has gone up to €1.76 today and the Government has done nothing for them in the budget. It was promising and said it would work on it. The Taoiseach inside there, where the Minister, Deputy Browne, is sitting now, said construction would be included. It has not been included and I doubt very much that he will honour his promise. I am calling on him now, if he has any word, to come out and ensure that something is done for these people.

Mention was made of the age profile of people who were in the protest. I can visualise yet the 86-year-old woman in Killarney, on the bypass, who was out with her flag protesting at what was happening to all the young fellas around her. She was older than them, and you would think that she had her part done, but she came down and she stood with the protesters and will again if there is another protest. We are not that far away from it the way the Government is behaving. It is time to get rid of the carbon tax. People are sick and tired of it. The Government is promising us new schemes for the retrofit of houses but it is taking two years for the SEAI to come back, in some instances, to tell people they will not qualify. I know one man who will not qualify because he was told he had a stone wall. He wanted to put the outside insulation around his house but he was refused because he had a solid stone wall. That is the gospel truth.

I am calling on the Government to get rid of the carbon tax and do something meaningful. It said it would suspend it and that carbon tax would be removed from heating oil. What that removes is only going to make €50 of a difference. Does the Government think that people are fools? That is €50 in a €1,500 bill. For a tax that costs €1,500, a bill will only be reduced by €50. The Government is only raising supports for the fuel allowance by €5 a week. It would not buy three litres of diesel. God almighty. The Ministers must wake up and listen to the people and be honest with the people. We saw the number of people who came on the television this evening to say they were dissatisfied with the budget and that there was nothing in it for them. I am asking the Minister to revisit what he has done, like I asked on 24 March and 25 March when the Government did nothing at all for farmers and agricultural contractors, but it had to when it was forced to come out, even though it put the Garda and the Army after people. If that is the kind of attitude that ye have inside of your brains, it can cost ye more trouble. I am appealing to the Government to forget about the carbon tax - its time has gone - and to be honest with the people.

Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn

The cynicism is out the window. The last time the Government allocated energy credits to the public was when they were going to vote almost two years ago. That was the last time the Government gave energy credits. There were none available here today. Home heating oil has increased from €900 to €1,600. The people that I represent who will be filling their tanks for the winter cannot afford that €700 increase. The Government had a choice here. It could have gone with the proposal from my colleague Deputy Pearse Doherty, the Sinn Féin finance spokesperson, for the maximum possible, which would have reduced it by €183 but it went for less than a quarter of that. The Government had choices but it went for less than a quarter and has taken hardly any pressure off at all.

It is similar with petrol and diesel. It is minimalist again and again, and the Government wonders why people come out. These are ordinary, hard-working people who never protested before and the Government drove them out onto the streets and it may well do it again. It is cynicism. The Minister has cut the fuel allowance in real terms because he has cut the period by four weeks. What was €1,216 last winter is now €1,204.

He has actually cut the fuel allowance. He has not brought back any energy credits. It has had a minimal impact on those who are struggling. He is just not listening.

An Ceann Comhairle

I am afraid we are out of time.

Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn

He is completely out of touch and it will drive people out onto the streets again.

An Ceann Comhairle

I must now put the following question in accordance with the order of the Dáil-----

Deputy Ged Nash

May I raise a point of order? It is a procedural matter.

An Ceann Comhairle

Yes.

Deputy Ged Nash

It may be helpful. I was looking at this earlier. The resolution changes mineral oil tax rates that rest at the moment on the resolution that was passed on 28 August. Our understanding is that this resolution is not in primary legislation at this point. Is that correct? Therefore, the Government is seeking to put a resolution on a resolution, and we are not convinced this is procedurally correct. The legislation that this relies on is section 4 of the Provisional Collection of Taxes Act 1927 and nowhere in that law does it provide for one resolution to be overtaken by another before either has been confirmed by the law. If the Minister has advice to the contrary, it is important that he put it on the record of the House. We have not come across this situation before. It seems to be unprecedented, unless there is a precedent, that we are putting a resolution on a resolution. The resolution that was taken in late August is a bridge to the insertion of the objective of the resolution into primary legislation, but we are putting a second bridge now on that initial bridge and that could be problematic.

The Dáil divided: Tá, 99; Níl, 63; Staon, 0.

Tá

Ahern, Ciarán.
Aird, William.
Ardagh, Catherine.
Bacik, Ivana.
Boland, Grace.
Brabazon, Tom.
Brennan, Brian.
Brennan, Shay.
Brophy, Colm.
Browne, James.
Burke, Colm.
Burke, Peter.
Butler, Mary.
Butterly, Paula.
Buttimer, Jerry.
Byrne, Malcolm.
Cahill, Michael.
Callaghan, Catherine.
Calleary, Dara.
Canney, Seán.
Carrigy, Micheál.
Cleere, Peter 'Chap'.
Clendennen, John.
Collins, Niall.
Connolly, John.
Cooney, Joe.
Crowe, Cathal.
Cummins, John.
Currie, Emer.
Daly, Martin.
Dempsey, Aisling.
Devlin, Cormac.
Dillon, Alan.
Dolan, Albert.
Dooley, Timmy.
Feighan, Frankie.
Fleming, Sean.
Foley, Norma.
Gallagher, Pat the Cope.
Geoghegan, James.
Grealish, Noel.
Harkin, Marian.
Healy-Rae, Michael.
Heneghan, Barry.
Heydon, Martin.
Higgins, Emer.
Kelly, Alan.
Kenny, Eoghan.
Keogh, Keira.
Kyne, Seán.
Lahart, John.
Lawless, James.
Lawlor, George.
Lowry, Michael.
Martin, Micheál.
Maxwell, David.
McAuliffe, Paul.
McCarthy, Noel.
McConalogue, Charlie.
McCormack, Tony.
McEntee, Helen.
McGrath, Séamus.
McGreehan, Erin.
Moran, Kevin Boxer.
Moynihan, Aindrias.
Moynihan, Michael.
Moynihan, Shane.
Murnane O'Connor, Jennifer.
Murphy, Michael.
Nash, Ged.
Naughton, Hildegarde.
Neville, Joe.
O'Brien, Darragh.
O'Callaghan, Jim.
O'Connell, Maeve.
O'Connor, James.
O'Donnell, Kieran.
O'Donoghue, Robert.
O'Donovan, Patrick.
O'Meara, Ryan.
O'Shea, John Paul.
O'Sullivan, Christopher.
O'Sullivan, Pádraig.
Ó Cearúil, Naoise.
Ó Fearghaíl, Seán.
Ó Muirí, Naoise.
Richmond, Neale.
Roche, Peter.
Scanlon, Eamon.
Sheehan, Conor.
Sherlock, Marie.
Smith, Brendan.
Smith, Duncan.
Smyth, Niamh.
Timmins, Edward.
Toole, Gillian.
Troy, Robert.
Wall, Mark.
Ward, Barry.

Níl

Bennett, Cathy.
Boyd Barrett, Richard.
Brady, John.
Buckley, Pat.
Byrne, Joanna.
Carthy, Matt.
Clarke, Sorca.
Collins, Michael.
Conway-Walsh, Rose.
Coppinger, Ruth.
Cronin, Réada.
Crowe, Seán.
Cullinane, David.
Cummins, Jen.
Daly, Pa.
Devine, Máire.
Donnelly, Paul.
Ellis, Dessie.
Ennis, Daniel.
Farrelly, Aidan.
Fitzmaurice, Michael.
Gannon, Gary.
Gibney, Sinéad.
Gogarty, Paul Nicholas.
Gould, Thomas.
Graves, Ann.
Guirke, Johnny.
Hayes, Eoin.
Healy-Rae, Danny.
Healy, Seamus.
Hearne, Rory.
Kenny, Martin.
Kerrane, Claire.
Lawless, Paul.
Mac Lochlainn, Pádraig.
McDonald, Mary Lou.
McGettigan, Donna.
McGrath, Mattie.
McGuinness, Conor D.
Murphy, Paul.
Mythen, Johnny.
Newsome Drennan, Natasha.
Ní Raghallaigh, Shónagh.
Nolan, Carol.
O'Callaghan, Cian.
O'Donoghue, Richard.
O'Flynn, Ken.
O'Gorman, Roderic.
O'Hara, Louis.
O'Reilly, Louise.
O'Rourke, Darren.
Ó Broin, Eoin.
Ó Laoghaire, Donnchadh.
Ó Murchú, Ruairí.
Ó Snodaigh, Aengus.
Ó Súilleabháin, Fionntán.
Quaide, Liam.
Quinlivan, Maurice.
Rice, Pádraig.
Stanley, Brian.
Ward, Charles.
Ward, Mark.
Whitmore, Jennifer.

Staon

Tellers: Tá, Deputies Mary Butler and Emer Currie; Níl, Deputies Pádraig Mac Lochlainn and David Cullinane.

Question declared carried.

Dáil Éireann debate - Tuesday, 6 Oct 2026

Financial Resolution No. 5 - Excise - Mineral Oil Tax

Tá

Níl

Staon

Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 6 Oct 2026