Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is indeed the Deputy's duty to represent his constituents and it is in cognisance of the points he is making that I made the decision to make no further change to the tax rates that are applicable to the price of fuel. A general point I would make in the debate on carbon taxation that I know is going to ensue from decisions I made on budget day is that if the contention is - and I accept it - that price does change behaviour, if the price of fuel is going up in the way it has in the past, what impact will that of itself have on usage of fuel and on transport choices? The difficulty the Deputy is raising with me is that the transport options available to many of his constituents are different from the options that would be available to those in larger cities and larger towns. As I said, while I am not in a position to announce the reduction the Deputy is looking for, we will be seeing further investment in public transport. The Local Link scheme that has been implemented by the Minister of State, Deputy Griffin, is going to work very well and I am committed to supporting him in those kind of projects in the coming period.

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