Derek Nolan (Galway West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

When I return to Galway this evening and speak with people who are worried about this issue, I will give them some details of the Minister of State's answer. They will get the contradiction quickly. The Government decided in September to publish a strategy to deal with energy affordability with a view towards its implementation. That strategy is still being implemented, yet we are moving ahead with a punitive increase in the cost of people's fuel. There is a contradiction in that strategy versus €1.20 extra on a bag of coal.

I realise that the Minister of State is not the Minister for Finance, but will he ask the Minister to produce information on how much revenue will be generated this year by that tax and to reconsider the possibility of delaying its introduction by just another year to give the economy a little bit of a chance to pick up and to give people a bit of slack and breathing space? Otherwise, a €2.40 tax on a bag of coal will be applied within the space of one year. For the people under discussion and who we are trying to represent, that is a great deal of money.

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