Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I support this amendment.

The average family farm in a rural area of 50, 60 or 70 acres is not viable on its own and the farmer must go to work. As has been pointed out, if the income threshold is €30,000 including everything, one is not entitled to all the Minister might say. The Minister will say he has given a few pound to this and that. The Minister should think of the people who are rearing a young family and who have a mortgage. They might have children going to college. They drive to work every day - 40 or 50 miles. They keep a community viable in a rural area. They come home in the evening and do a bit of farming. They help in their community. What will they pay in the year?

The Minister talked about farmers and what they will pay. The Minister is correct in his statistics about the farmer but the contractor works for the farmer. What will the contractors do? They will not suck it up. They will pass the cost on to the farmer.

What will happen the food that they will buy in the shop? Every bit of food in this country that is flown in is still without any carbon tax. If we want to go on our holidays we do not pay carbon tax and if we want to go to work in Ireland, we pay it. The food that is transported, either in a rural area or a city area, is transported by lorry and there will be a knock-on effect there. There will be a knock-on effect for the contractor who comes in to do the work. If one adds it up, the average household that is not entitled to all that the Minister talks about and the earnings of which are above the threshold - one need not be too high to be above that - will end up €300 to €350 worse off between the car, the contractor, the bit of farming, going to work and heating their house. There is no piped gas in rural villages. Oil is the general fuel.

The Minister will talk about the retrofitting. There is no-one saying that it is not a good thing but one has got to have lolly in one's pocket to get it. One does not get it all because one is over the threshold. One must have money to retrofit one's house.

The couple to whom I refer are paying a mortgage already. Many such couples are only surviving and now we are deciding to make sure that we give them another puck. Middle Ireland pays for everything. That is the total of it.

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