Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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I move amendment No. 3:

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This relates to the Schedule for mineral oil tax contained in the Finance Bill. Amendment No. 3 concerns the mineral oil tax, particularly the rate of excise applied to home heating oil and marked gas oil. It provides for a zero rate for home heating oil under the energy tax directive from 1 May to 31 October. The effect of the measure would be that a 900-litre fill of home heating oil would see a reduction of €125. It is a cost-of-living measure, taking cognisance of the fact that 37% of households that rely on home heating oil have received no fuel-specific support since the cost-of-living crisis began. The measure would cost €57 million, according to the Department of Finance.

Thankfully, the cost of home heating oil has started to come down in recent weeks, which is to be welcomed, but we saw over ten months of last year a significant increase. There is support for those who use gas to heat their homes. This is primarily the method used by many here in the capital city, the Minister's city, namely Cork, and elsewhere, but 37% of households use home heating oil as their primary heat source. In the Border counties – including my constituency, Donegal – and elsewhere, two out of three homes use home heating oil to heat their homes. The cost saw dramatic increases last year. Thankfully, it is decreasing. I believe that what I propose is a cost-of-living measure that recognises that no support was provided to those who use home heating oil. The decision of the Government last year was to increase excise duty on home heating oil, thereby increasing the overall cost. It plans to do this again in May of this year, which is absolutely not acceptable. The decision coming into effect on 1 May will add €19.40 to a fill of home heating oil. What happened last year and the Government decision that will come into effect on 1 May will see a €39 increase in the cost of home heating oil. This is permissible under the energy tax directive. What I propose can and should be done. It is a question of whether the Government is willing to support the one third of households who did not benefit from the reduction in VAT on gas because they do not use gas and instead use home heating oil as their primary method of heating their homes. They have seen significant rises without any direct fuel-specific support since the cost-of-living crisis began.

We will come to the temporary business energy support scheme, TBESS, later. We pointed out to the Government that it was seriously flawed, for several reasons. One in particular is that many companies did not use piped gas as fuel. The Government now recognises there will be a scheme at some stage – we do not even know what it will look like – for companies that use other energy sources, such as liquified petroleum gas and oil. The same needs to happen for households.