Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I came to the meeting with certain questions I wanted to ask but we have floated right across the spectrum of agriculture challenges, road transport and so on. The one issue that comes out of the debate is that the Commission on Taxation and Welfare produced a document that is so high level that it frightens everybody because it mentions everything that can be done. What we do not have is a concrete pathway on how we will achieve it. The same thing is going on with the climate action plans. We are making decisions to do things before we have the alternatives in play. This morning in the Dáil I raised the issue of the closure of Shannonbridge and Lanesborough power stations when they had ten more years of life left, yet we went on to pass legislation to put diesel generators into one of them and into someplace else to back up our fuel. To use the parlance, we have put the cart before the horse lots of times. The biggest problem I have with all of this taxation and what will happen is, if we increase the cost of diesel for the farming community because it is not an environmentally friendly source of energy, the farmer will have to take that on board but the problem is the farmer cannot add it on at the end of the day because he is a price taker and has to take whatever price there is. We see what is happening with sheep at the moment. What is also happening in road haulage is that their costs are going up so Mrs. Bloggs or Mr. Bloggs in the shop will have to pay more or else they will opt for a cheaper variety of food of lower quality. We are setting out policies that are supposed to improve the lives of everybody and protect the environment but what we are doing is - there is a word I want to use but I cannot.