Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh maith agat, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I appreciate the opportunity to speak. It should not take seven minutes to say what I need to say; it should not even take three. I have to agree with much of what has already been said in this Chamber. I am speaking in support of amendments Nos. 72, 76 and 77. It is straightforward; carbon tax is a regressive tax. It has already been said that we are screwing over people who are the most susceptible. We are talking about the most poor people in rural Ireland who do not have the alternatives, the reality of dealing with the price of electric cars, and the fact that we do not have a retrofitting scheme that is fit for purpose and of which anybody can avail. We are talking about the fact that we have not put the public transport infrastructure into action that is necessary to allow us offer people those alternatives. We all agree that we need to make huge moves in respect of climate change but we cannot do that by screwing over the people who are poorest. We cannot continue to screw over people who work in the agricultural sector and people who live in rural Ireland. It is as simple as that. Deputy Doherty put it very well when he said that not only are we screwing people but we will screw them more and more every year until we get to 2030. This will not work. We need the Government to revisit it. We need something that works for everybody. We need the infrastructure and the retrofitting schemes. We need to give people opportunities. If we are even talking about electric cars, forget about the price of them. We need to ensure that we have the infrastructure in terms of charging points and so on.

I ask the Minister and beg the Government not to screw people over . We are at a particular time when people have been hammered and the last thing we need to do in rural Ireland to those people who are the poorest and do not have the resources is put another harness around them or further pressure on them. We need a rethink from the Government. We need fairness and to ensure that we will offer real alternatives and a solution to climate change rather than the hammer of carbon tax in this form.

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