Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Mr. Godfrey has spoken about people having choice. He is correct that people have choice but Deputy Paul Murphy has a point. If I wanted to buy a shirt, I could buy it in my home town of Clonmel, in Donegal or in Dublin depending on price. Most people like me fill up the car when the fuel gauge light comes on. As I can only travel a limited distance, I cannot look at the price in Donegal or Galway. I cannot get to those places because I do not have enough fuel in the car and to get to them would cost too much anyway. When Mr. Godfrey talks about freedom of choice, it is a very limited freedom of choice compared with other products that people buy. For that reason, the Government needs to do something. There must be some acknowledgement that the freedom of choice is more limited for fuel than it is for most other products. That is not something for Mr. Godfrey to solve today, obviously. However, when we talk about freedom of choice it needs to be acknowledged that it is not really full freedom of choice.