Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The funding is coming from this pot and it is not coming back to the people. That is the argument I am trying to put. That is why this amendment has been tabled. It is to get the Minister to understand there is no point in putting a carbon tax in place when the moneys raised through the taxes from fuel are taken back to Dublin to spend on big projects there as well as in senior Ministers' constituencies but the people on the ground in rural communities suffer. We need that funding from fuel to be spent in a fair manner, not in an unfair manner.

The bypass at Innishannon, the northern bypass in Bandon and the Bantry bypass have all been waiting for decades for money but there has been no delivery. The money from the fuel tax, the carbon tax or whatever polished word one wants to put on it, can give some kind of delivery. That is not happening, however. The people in my constituency are absolutely furious because they will have to keep forking out until 2040 before we can negotiate this measure again. This is a bad deal. That tax should not be taken out of the pockets of the people of rural Ireland unless it is given back in a fair manner. We cannot be heating the homes or making a warmer home for the people throughout the capital or highly populated areas. The people of rural Ireland need their warmer homes too but they are not getting that.

The humanitarian aid for flooding did not deliver. The Government announces schemes which 80% to 90% of people cannot access. That is not fair. There should have been a roadmap as to where the money would have been spent back in rural, as well as urban, communities. On that, the Government has failed miserably. The people on the ground are those who are going to suffer most.

Fishermen are now paying massive fuel tax for their trawlers. There were further announcements in the past week about the EU Brexit talks and how 18% of Irish fishing stocks has been offered to the UK to bring it on board. Unfortunately, the Irish fishermen and fishing rights are in serious jeopardy. Taxes are being taken from their fuels, and the same as is done to hard-pressed farmers, contractors and hauliers.

How will the Minister spend the taxes from this fuel in future? Has the Government considered the consequences of not spending money in rural Ireland? Is this money going to be spent on infrastructure to open our communities in west Cork? The Government cannot think that a few visits during the summer will suffice as our way forward. I asked the Minister several times about the pubs earlier but I did not hear him answer it. He might have answered it earlier but I did not hear it.

I have been opposed to the measure in question. I have been justified as the Government failed on the first hurdle with it giving €63 million around the rest of the country but dropping west Cork off the map when we are paying the most.

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