Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The change to mineral oil and home heating oil tax will not come in until May 2023. We are already recognising that winter is a difficult period for so many. That is why we have phased increases to come in after the harsh weather of this time has hopefully faded. Going back to what I said earlier, on the one hand, Deputy Doherty wants more retrofitting programmes, but he is against the carbon tax that helps to pay for them, on the other. I have looked at his budget day statement and at Sinn Féin's alternative budget now that it is available again for me to look at. It states that it would deliver a modest surplus for this year that would allow for a dynamic and flexible response to the cost-of-living crisis in the time ahead. Is the reality not that he has made the case for spending the corporate tax receipts when we are not entirely confident that they will increase in the future as they have in the past? If we were to implement the approach that he has been advocating, we would be exiting Covid with the need to borrow more money and we would be facing into a big change in the global economy having already spent the money that we need for the future.

Deputy Matthews makes an excellent point. It is interesting that Deputy Doherty has spent most of his time addressing this amendment by talking about retrofitting. The amendment is about taxation. We are dealing with the Finance Bill, so that is what the amendment should be about. The Deputy spent much time talking about retrofitting, but I cannot find any reference to the price cap in Sinn Féin's flagship energy policy in any amendment that the party has tabled. There are amendments about everything else, but the policy that the Deputy pushed so hard a number of weeks ago has disappeared from the debate.

How did the Deputy feel at his party's recent Ard-Fheis when his party leader was hitting out at the UK Government for its economic track record, given that the policy the Deputy advocated is associated with much of the risk and harm that the UK Government is now having to grapple with? On one hand his party leader was attacking the UK Government for measures that have had an impact on its economy, but on the other hand he has advocated the same measure. How did it feel for his party and himself to be associated with the very measure the British Government is now saying it wants to bring to an end and knows it needs to replace? Maybe the Deputy will say in a moment that he will bring this amendment forward on Report Stage - that he will bring forward a proposal at that point to ask the Government to consider implementing the policies he was advocating so strongly up to a few weeks ago - but I am not going to hold my breath.