Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

Ba mhaith liom labhairt ar an cháin bhreise atá á ghearradh ar peitril agus díosail. Tá sé go huile agus hiomlán dírithe ar ghnáthdhaoine na tíre, ina measc an lucht gnó atá ag brath ar iompar a gcuid stuif timpeall na tíre. Tá sé go huile agus hiomlán i gcoinne aon rud a bheimid ag iarraidh a dhéanamh amach anseo chun an geilleagar a athógáil.

The Minister of State accepted that he somewhat underestimated the cost of diesel and petrol when he read out the figures. When he corrected the figure it showed the scale of the change in the price of diesel and petrol in the past year alone. This has a specific consequence for small businesses in particular and those living in rural Ireland. Those living in larger cities have a public transport network and I will come back to this. However, in huge tracts of Ireland people are totally dependent on motorised vehicles. Small businesses trying to export our goods are also dependent on trucks and vans to shuttle their goods around the country to ports. The biggest problem is that the public transport network and the train network have been reduced and undermined in recent years by a lack of proper investment. An alternative is not there for many small businesses dependent on motorised transport.

This is a very penal tax increase and it should be resisted in every way. I am not one to encourage more and more cars in the street. However, in this city the Government has reduced the subvention to the public transport networks in recent times. So much for the Green Party and its endorsement of public transport. Years of underfunding have meant that even in this city where one would expect public transport to be the most effective and efficient for everyone to use, it has not delivered and it has not been delivered upon by the Government.

Small businesses have already been screwed by the Government because additional taxes have made it more difficult for them, as have the lack of credit from the banks and the rates increases from local authorities. I do not blame local authorities. The problem with local authorities is that over the years the Government has underfunded local authorities so their only recourse in many ways is to further tax local businesses and shops.

I urge that this Bill be totally rejected. The only part of it which I support - but which should not be there - is the reduction in the travel tax. If we are to build Ireland the travel tax should be removed altogether. There should have been an opportunity to remove that tax altogether.

On a point of order, I ask that a quorum be called.

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