Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 72:

In page 47, to delete lines 32 to 40, to delete pages 48 to 50, and in page 51, to delete lines 1 to 30.

We are moving this amendment because, in the period of the ten-year strategy, we will not have an opportunity to discuss these again. These are not our figures, but international figures. Somewhere between €3,000 and €9,000 will be paid by each member of society in this carbon tax. That is a great deal of money, especially in the middle of a pandemic, and in any case, without any proper fair analysis of the impact this is having and the joined-up thinking.

We will be told there are different carbon initiatives, different schemes and different advantages. Where are they for rural Ireland? They are not there. For example, there is a two-year waiting list for the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, warmer homes scheme. It is a shocking indictment and so frustrating for people. The Tipperary Energy Agency, which is in my home town of Cathair Dún Iascaigh, is wonderful. It does great work. Companies have been in touch with me on different occasions over the past number of years because they cannot get paid and they have the works carried out on people's homes to try and generate energy savings and provide some bit of comfort and solace for people living in rural and urban areas. This scheme covers the country. When asking will I raise this issue, they then say that we cannot and that if we say anything they will lose the contracts. They are being held, and they are carrying on credit for work that has done two years previously.

There is a two-year waiting list and it has grown incrementally. While that is going on, it is a fake scheme because the funding is not in it. People want to embrace climate action and climate change and retrofit their homes but they are bogged down in bureaucracy. Some assessments may be taking place during Covid but no work is being carried out. One could add another seven or eight months to the waiting list. In one case, where the family offered to vacate the home in order to have the retrofitting take place, they were told that they still would not get it done. There is no money in the bank to pay it. It is as simple as that. We are taking the people's money under false pretences with no proper analysis or impact assessments of the damage that this is doing to people and the ability to live, and indeed whether we will be successful in our carbon strategy.

We are pushing this amendment because it is related to a number of amendments that we have down which, obviously, we will not get to. We are concerned about the bland sweeping action of the Finance Bill and budget 2021 and that we will not have a chance to discuss this again. As I stated early, we already had the 2040 plan which is destroying rural Ireland - just laying it waste. With our county development plan being discussed at present - one of the only powers councillors have is the function to make the county development plan - it can be overruled by the Department and by a new quango that has been set up. It is to Hell or to Connacht for the people and I am saying here, neither to Hell nor to Connacht. We need to live. We need to be able to get to and from work. We need to have services and transport and meaningful schemes, not all announcements for Luas and DART. I have nothing against the people of Dublin as they need them.

The Minister earlier was saying that I was not speaking to the amendment. I am speaking to this set of amendments, which the Leas-Cheann Comhairle has read out, because the Rural Independents who put them down are hugely concerned and annoyed.

We have had tokenism, pious platitudes and all kinds of promises when it comes to getting a bang for our buck and a return for the moneys that have been levied, and will be levied, on men, women and children in families all over the country. We have got nothing out of the moneys that were levied heretofore. In fact, it is not true that we got nothing. We got supports for some greenways and other projects. As I mentioned earlier, we have a blueway in south Tipperary and a wonderful greenway in Dungarvan and Port Láirge. However, the county councils have been left hugely indebted as a result of pushing forward those projects. I salute the community groups for their work in this area. I mentioned Knockmealdown Active earlier and other community groups that are doing their best on a daily basis to promote tourism products and a greener economy, with mountain and hill walks and everything else. That is being taken up in a huge way and people from the cities are going to those areas to walk. However, we need supports for people who are having to pay out these taxes on their fill of diesel, their home heating oil and their bag of coal, briquettes or heat logs. We need that support but we are not getting it.

I am crying extremely foul that this provision is being introduced for a nine-year period and we will not have a chance to debate it in next year's Finance Bill. Fair play is all that we want. Fair play is fine play with me any day but it is a long time since we had fair play for the people of rural Ireland. The Leas-Cheann Comhairle knows the services are not there. I hear her talking all the time about a ring road for Galway. We need a ring road for Tipperary town that will allow people to live their lives. We pay all the taxes but we do not get the returns. It is one of the last towns to be bypassed, certainly in County Tipperary, and lorries are parked up there, polluting the air for hours on end as they try to get through. Business people cannot do business and motorists will not drive into the town. They park somewhere else, outside the town, which is part of the policy and strategy that was put in place.

We will be pressing this amendment.

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