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

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this. I am disappointed that amendment No. 74, which I tabled, was ruled out of order. I do not know why because it was a very simple amendment based on the fact that agricultural contractors do 90% of the work. I know the Minister will tell us about the tax rebate the farmers have and that there is double taxation. The reality is that farm contractors do 90% of the work, be it silage or slurry and various work carried out on the farm, because many farmers do not have time to do that section of the work. These contractors do not get a grant and they do not get a rebate. This is why I tabled the amendment in support of the other amendments.

The Government, which has been like myxomatosis with the Green Party, has now decided that rural Ireland will be the carbon sink for the rest of the country.

They want to tell the farmers they cannot do this, that or the other. My understanding, from listening to parliamentary questions being asked about the Cork to Mallow road and other road sections, is that public transport might be looked at. People in rural areas do not have a bus service to bring them to work, and do not have a Luas or any of the public transport systems that are in place in the cities, through no fault of their own. They are what we call middle Ireland and what the Minister's party leader called the people who get up early in the morning and go to work, rear a family and keep this country ticking over with taxes. They are the people we want to keep screwing and screwing.

The Minister will tell us about retrofitting. If they have over €25,000 in income, the Minister should not be codding people about retrofitting. That is the reality. He talks about just transition. Yes, some money will come to the midlands and it is badly needed, of that there is no doubt. However, what is the just transition for someone in Donegal who might have to drive 40 or 50 miles? What is the just transition for someone in Clare, Kerry, Mayo or Connemara? What is the just transition for them, except to screw them more for carbon tax? It is to make sure that the fuel they have to heat their homes at night has a carbon tax on it. It is to make sure the car they drive has a carbon tax on it. It is easy to tell them to go electric. Unfortunately, for many of these people, the best they can do when they are doing well is to buy cars that cost a maximum of €10,000. If we look at the price of an electric car at the moment, I do not think they will get many of them for that.

We do not seem to understand the plight of those people. I agree with Deputy Carthy when he called the carbon tax another form of tax to screw the Irish people. Unfortunately, the agricultural sector is going to be paying the most. Why is the Government doing that to people who have no option? The Minister should show me how a contractor or a farmer could buy an electric tractor. It is not available. They are developing some at the moment but someone would want to win the lotto to pay the price I saw on the first one they are trying to develop. This is putting more pressure on an industry, in particular the beef sector, that has been struggling in the last few years.

If there was an alternative, we would all be standing up and shouting about it but, unfortunately, there is no alternative at the moment. We seem to be disconnected, and that is the feeling in rural parts of Ireland: disconnection from the political people who bring in different measures to cripple them. As I was born and reared in a rural area, I do not have the privilege of a bus, a tram or a Luas running by my front door. In our time, we had a school bus that brought us to school but, unfortunately, the Government has cut back on that. Most people are not eligible for school transport, yet we talk about climate change and having less transport and traffic on the road. At the same time, we are going to penalise these people for where they were born and reared.

We are supposed to treat all our citizens equally. The Minister will probably stand up later and say there is double taxation, and there is. However, if 90% of people’s work is done by somebody else, it does not really matter because the price of what they are doing is going up. Before people pay tax, in case the Minister did not know, they have to earn money and make a profit, and many of these people are struggling to make a profit. We are constantly, year by year, trying to shut down rural Ireland and its people with taxes so there is no other solution except to stay with the diesel car, because they are travelling long distances and cannot afford a newer one. They have to stay with the diesel tractor because there is no other one, and it is the same for the loader for putting up silage and all the different equipment that is needed.

We talked earlier about safety and we welcome the safety measures. However, for the farming sector right around rural Ireland, we are basically whipping more money out of their pockets and, at the same time, telling them they will have to plant a few extra trees, if they can get a licence, which is nearly impossible as well, or they will have to do this, that or the other. They have to take the sucker punch for everyone else. People are fed up with that.

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