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

The carbon tax increases introduced in budget 2021 are punitive for the most vulnerable and anti-rural due to the hikes in the prices of petrol, diesel and oil. The measures included in budget 2021, such as the increase in carbon tax by €7.50 per tonne, will mean an extra €150 per year to fill a diesel car and €130 per year for a petrol car until 2030. I have a young lad below in west Cork. He told me the other day that his car insurance has gone up by 134%. How is this young man supposed to stay on the road with these huge increases in the cost of fuel and insurance? It is an extra burden on the people of rural Ireland.

The hike in carbon tax will also considerably impact the price of home heating oil until 2030. The Green Party, backed by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, is shoving these taxes down our throats. However, if one has to live in rural Ireland, one needs oil heating. One also, in all likelihood, needs fuel, coal, wood and turf. What does the Government expect us to use if we cannot use any of those products? The Green Party has wonderful dreams but it is giving families no alternative. Should we tell people to sit in their houses with their coats on? People do not have the money for extra taxes. We need an increase in the fuel allowance. Look at the people over 66 who were still working when Covid-19 hit. They were not working for the joy of it, they were doing it because they had no choice. There has been not one extra brown cent for those workers over 66. This Government would want to wake up and realise that these are the people who built Ireland. I wonder how many people woke up this morning wondering how they are going to pay their ESB bill. I wonder how many woke up cold. Has the Minister any idea what it is like to sit in a house week in, week out during a pandemic and not have enough money to heat the home?

Recipients of the PUP should receive the fuel allowance and we need an increase in all of those allowances. They should be more easily accessible. Data indicate that some 28% of householders in Ireland are in energy poverty and that some 400,000 people go without heating at some stage because of the cost. The available payments, such as the fuel allowance, do not cover many of those affected. The increases in costs associated with home heating oil will, therefore, make the situation worse and increase the issue of fuel poverty.

The Minister said this morning that we should redirect people to her Department. The red tape attached to this means it is not viable. I talk about warmer homes and Deputy Canney spoke about it previously and he is right. There is a two-year waiting list. It is outrageous that people who want an alternative and are willing to make the move are still finding the fences impossible to jump to get their homes. I know many people in west Cork, in places such as Bantry, Skibbereen, Clonakilty and Bandon, who come to me. We have been filling out these forms for the past two years. They contact me again and I ask "Are you codding me?" when they say nothing has happened. We cannot get our homes insulated and get the job done. I look at the warmer homes scheme that was being laid out in Bantry. When it was first made available, people like Finbarr O'Sullivan ran meticulous projects insulating elderly people's homes and so on. What did the Government do? It pulled those jobs. Those people have no jobs. Five jobs have been lost in the past few weeks.

The time for talking is over. The Green Party has dreams but I call on it to come up with a reality for the people on the ground.

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