Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 62:

In page 33, to delete lines 29 to 38, to delete page 34, and in page 35, to delete lines 1 to 17.

This amendment addresses a huge issue and is consistent with our policy on the matter within the Rural Independent Group. We are not blindly saying that there is no climate change issue, but we are saying that the carbon tax proposal in the Bill is unacceptable. It is a denial of democracy. I am in this House 13 years and have been involved in debating 13 finance Bills. I might be a slow learner but it is a leap of faith that we will not have the chance to discuss this again until 2030. We already have a plan running until 2040 that is destroying rural Ireland and herding people into the cities. I will not say exactly what I would like to say about the Covid situation other than that it has taught us that it is rural people who are sustaining us. I remember three recessions. During the last recession, it was rural people and farmers who kept the country going.

The carbon tax is impacting hugely on less well-off people and families. We all know that carbon taxes amounting to several billions of euro have already been collected from hard-pressed motorists and householders. That money is not being spent evenly. Deputy Nolan might speak about the just transition aspect because she knows more about it than I do. There is no just response or just payback for people. In fact, it is not about getting payback but the fact that people are not getting the physical infrastructure they need. Fortunately, we have got a blueway in Tipperary and a fabulous greenway in Dungarvan, which is only out the road from me. However, those facilities are being put in place by local authorities, which are having to go into huge debt to do so. I salute the county managers and engineers who are driving these projects, as well as the visionaries and voluntary groups involved. I thank Tríona O'Mahony of Munster Vales and Marie Phelan in Tipperary County Council, who have worked with local communities to drive those projects forward. Knockmealdown Active has done good work in this area. Communities in rural Ireland are trying their best to achieve a good carbon-free environment while also getting the amenities they need for people to get out ag siúl, ag dul ar an rothar agus ag rince, fadó fadó, although that is banished now.

The funds are being extracted from people but there is nothing being given in return. I have not mentioned the farmers, agri-contractors and hauliers. It is not being managed properly. The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, promised us during the debates we had on the Covid pandemic and the budget that it would be done right, but that is not happening. Places like west Cork did not get a penny for any greenway. It seems like some counties are preferred and others are not. Deputy Michael Collins has said that his part of the country is being treated like Jurassic Park. It is a beautiful part of the country, not Jurassic Park, but a lot of the Ministers, and the Taoiseach, go there on holiday and then seem to forget about it. They want rural Ireland to be a kind of playground, or a docile place they can visit. We saw the same attitude in the recent debate about greyhound racing. Some people in this House want to kill that industry, which together with horse racing, provides 40,000 jobs. Are we going to have a utopian state where we are all smoking marijuana and listening to rock music or whatever? Whale watching is something else we have heard mentioned. I am talking about the everyday person who is going to work and trying to pay his mortgage, look after his family and educate the children. There is discrimination against rural people in areas like transport, education and broadband. People trying to learn and work from home cannot do so. A family at home with one broadband line might have three or four children trying to do schoolwork and the father and mother trying to work, all at the same time. They are all fighting over the one bit of poor broadband, or having to go into the village to access broadband and do their work.

The proposal on carbon tax is dastardly and it has been introduced in such a way that we do not have a right to review it. I hope we will be back in Leinster House next year, rather than in the convention centre, but no matter where we are, we cannot discuss this provision. I have never seen anything like it. The carbon tax provision will be passed in this Finance Bill and we will not have a chance to evaluate it next year or the year after, na blianta ag fás, until 2030. That cannot be right or fair. It is my duty, as a Deputy representing rural people, to say that this is wrong. It is a denial of democracy at its most basic. We have been talking about the denial of rights that come with the Covid restrictions, but this denial of democracy has nothing to do with Covid. This grandiose scheme comes on top of the 2040 plan, which should be derailed and dismantled. We have very few rail lines now but this is one train that should be halted and taken off the track because it is destroying the fabric of rural Ireland. People cannot build a house or a farm building, or take out the forestry that needs to be replaced, because of the carbon footprint and the serial objectors.

As I said, the whole of rural Ireland is seen as a kind of a playground that is to be admired and where one drives to see the scenery. I do not know what the Government wants us to do. Are we to go back into hovels and be like the cavemen back in the antediluvian times? It is shocking and it is not acceptable. I would not be representing my people if I did not speak up about it. I know the Government will vote down this amendment but the fact that we cannot debate the provision next year beats Banagher. I have nothing against Banagher or Offaly but that is an old saying we have in Tiobraid Árann. The wool is being pulled over people's eyes. Countless hundreds of millions - in fact, billions - of euro have been paid in carbon tax by farmers, contractors, road hauliers and ordinary motorists over the past ten years and more. They are not getting anything back for it. There is very little or no return. We get announcements in the budget about the Luas, the DART and God knows what else. There are proposals for terminals at Dublin Airport and to widen the streets and put in bus lanes, all here in the capital. The capital does not own Ireland. We know that and the people in Dublin know it now. We all feed into the capital and there are more places than Dublin to be looked after.

There are very few rail lines in Tipperary and the rail services are not being run at proper times. There is no proper, joined-up thinking about public transport and related issues. We all want electric cars but we cannot afford them and there are not enough service and charging points. It is all grand in plan and theory but it is a different story on the ground. For the woman trying to heat her cottage or house with a bag of coal, even if she gets a fuel allowance, the carbon tax is adding to the cost. Then we have coal coming across from Northern Ireland and destroying fuel merchant businesses here. There is great inequity and unfairness inherent in the system and it is not acceptable or palatable for rural people or urban people. Why should it be? People in cities and towns also have to pay the carbon tax on their fuel and gas, and that is not fair either. Then we have all the utility companies fleecing people with standing charges. Even for the hotels, shops and pubs that are closed at this time, a fortune is being accrued in utility taxes. It is shocking what is going on.

I cannot accept this provision, especially as there is no chance to evaluate it or have a vote on it next year. We will not even be able to talk about it. It is a nice plan to put it in this Bill and have it there for ten years and the lads cannot even talk about it. It was Marie Antoinette who is supposed to have said, "Let them eat cake". We are sick of eating cake. We would prefer bread and butter and a rasher inside in it. We want a focus on plain living and ordinary living, not sweetness and pie.

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