Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

-----I demonstrated in the Dáil last night that the 38,000 litre per year allowance for under 18 year olds fell 16,000 litres short of what might constitute a so-called free allowance for under 18 year olds. I will pursue with the Taoiseach next week the truth of this matter. It will not go on for months in the same way that the Taoiseach allowed the former Minister for Justice and Equality to continue.

Two weeks from tomorrow, in the local and European elections and the by-elections, in particular the Dublin West by-election, the people will have an undreamed of opportunity to go to the polls in droves, deal a shattering rebuff to the Fine Gael-Labour Party Government and match the justice meted out three years ago to Fianna Fáil and the Green Party for their crimes, not only for the perversion of justice today but also for the crushing austerity policy and the betrayal of promises. They should go to the polls in their droves to make a powerful statement, not by supporting newly converted anti-austerityites, those who have seen the light when they have been knocked off their horses, but by supporting organisations and candidates that have demonstrated, not with cheap words but their actions, some for decades, that they stand by the people, including working people, the poor, the unemployed and pensioners, and act in their interests to achieve a better society and against injustices such as further austerity, the introduction of water taxes, cuts and the devaluation of work and working conditions as opposed to job creation and decent wages.

See this speech in context