Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

They are not a luxury. They are being treated that way but they are a necessity. People who use their cars to travel to work and to drop their children to school or college will be hit hard by this provision.

During the past couple of years, the price of diesel has been higher than that of petrol. In a cunning way, the Government has decided to impose an increase in the duty on petrol because it is of the view that this will also drive up the price of diesel. I cannot see what will stop the latter from happening. The price of diesel has been greater than that of petrol for the past two or three years. Does this increase mean that the prices will be brought level or will there be an automatic increase in the price of diesel? Those in the transport sector and everyone else will be hammered if there are parallel increases in the price of both fuels. The Tánaiste knows that will be the case.

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