Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

There is a slogan, "Think local and act global". The reality is that China or any of those major countries are also made up of little neighbourhoods, and each neighbourhood will say the other neighbourhood should do it. This is a global issue and no country is exempt from doing their bit. Even if our bit is small in global terms, we should do it.

The Deputy mentioned farmers. Farmers are in a fantastic position to provide themselves with wood energy, which is a sustainable form of energy. The Western Development Commission has done a good deal of work on that and therefore they can offset the extra costs.

As the Deputy is aware, the tax will be introduced in April. Farmers would normally buy a full tank of oil. Looking at farmers' accounts and so on, the amount of energy used by the west of Ireland farmers I represent - perhaps the big farmers are in Mayo - is small per portion of their input costs because of the low intensity of the farming.

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