Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)

I genuinely believed every word he said. He spoke about the need to help hard-pressed workers, trawlermen, hauliers and others who were finding it very difficult to survive in the straitened economic times of June 2008. Nothing has improved since then, by any stretch of the imagination. Fuel prices have continued to escalate to the extent that a litre of diesel now costs €1.70. Ordinary people cannot afford it any more. Such an exorbitant tax on fuel is a tax on people who are trying to go to work, to commute and to pay their bills. It is distorting the take-home pay of those who are in work. It is creating a poverty trap. Some people have realised that it might not pay them to drive to work. The Minister of State knows rural Ireland as well as I do. He appreciates that people in many towns and villages in rural Ireland cannot use public transport to get from A to B. People have to travel to work in order to pay their bills.

I ask the Government to consider this legislation in a positive manner. When the Government did its sums in advance of budget 2012, it assumed it would take in a certain level of revenue from fuel and oil prices. The Government will take in more than it had planned because those prices have increased. Why can it not give a little of the additional revenue back? We are asking for a reduction of 5 cent a litre. We are proposing a reduction of 4 cent in excise duty and of 1 cent in VAT. That could have a meaningful impact. The problem with this Government was highlighted by the then Leader of the Opposition in 2008 when he said that people lose touch very quickly after they get into power. When they sit into their cars, they have already been filled with fuel. They do not have to worry too much about it as they are driven around the countryside. We recently listened to Ministers saying that the household charge would amount to just €2 a week. They did not seem to appreciate that many people cannot afford the basics. I know of cases of people ordering home heating oil by the litre, as opposed to the hundreds of litres they used to order a few years ago.

The proposal before the House should be given some thought. It deserves an airing and a hearing. I ask the Government to think about it over the next 24 hours. We need to give some relief to people who are under financial stress and pressure. Some of those who leave home early in the morning and return late at night are deciding whether it is worth their while having to travel long distances to go to work. A poverty trap is developing as a consequence of escalating fuel prices. This problem is particularly evident among lower-paid people who have to commute long distances. As Deputy Dooley pointed out, the Government has tried to stimulate job creation in the tourism sector by reducing VAT in that sector. If that is working in the tourism sector, it will also work in the fuel sector. If the price of fuel were reduced by a certain amount, people would get a little bit of breathing space. They might spend it on something else. They might pay a bill or they might buy something. The principle we are advocating is the same one that underpins the reduction in VAT in the tourism sector, which the Government considers to be one of its finest job stimulus packages since it came into office. I believe it might have the same result in this case. It might give people some breathing space, hope and confidence. We need to make sure it pays them to sit into their cars each day and drive to work in return for a fair day's pay.

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