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

I support and welcome the motion. However, it should be made clear that, unfortunately, Governments do not listen often enough to motions in here. I assure Deputy Danny Healy-Rae that whether it is the Green Party, Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil, given what is going on in this country at the moment it is like the Chihuahua pulling the Great Dane's tail. The Green Party is dictating the pace. I assure him that it tried once to stop us cutting turf and it failed, and it will not succeed a second time if it tries anything. I say that loud and clear to the Green Party. We know that the carbon tax has gone up and that people in rural Ireland are basically hit with double taxation at the moment. People do not realise that the Government is trying to bring in a Bill to stop exploration for oil and gas. We need to realise that the gas that is coming in from Europe goes through the UK and we know the situation that has developed there at the moment. Whether we like it or not, we have no security of fuel now in this country. Even if we have all the wind turbines in the world, we will still need the gas plants to run at 50%. We need to get real. No more than with electricity, we are now pushing the country to danger levels with energy supply. There is also a situation developing regarding peat. Bord na Móna has closed down bogs but private contractors used to rent land from it, which ensured that ordinary people in rural areas got enough turf for their own fire. Instead of hiding behind some of his staff who are lower down in Bord na Móna, Tom Donnellan needs to clarify what is going on there.

I got a phone call this morning in the constituency I share with Deputy Kerrane from a person who is living in a social house. The house is heated by electric heaters and with the PSO levies adding to the cost of electricity, it costs €75 per week to heat. The person wanted to know if there is any new type of heater that would help or if the council could do something. Retrofitting is important and we all support that. Every mechanism to reduce the consumption of energy is fully endorsed by everybody, but the reality is that it comes at a price.

In fairness to the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, last year she extended the fuel allowance for an extra period. I acknowledge and welcome that. I hope that the same is done again. My concern is that if it is extended for the rest of the year, with the way the Green Party is pulling the tails of the other parties, we are going to be living in a country where people will be looking out a half door but they might not live too long because they will be perished or they might not have electricity. We are putting this country at risk at the moment and we must call for that to stop. Everyone believes in doing things better and in trying to be more efficient, but one cannot cut off one's nose to spite one's face just to dot the i's and cross the t's for one's parliamentary party and say one got this through because it was in the programme for Government.

The peat briquettes are available from Bord na Móna until 2024 or 2025. I have been told by about 20 people in the past week that loads of them are coming in from Germany. The Government can be proud of itself that that is happening at the moment. Loads of milled peat are coming in now from Estonia and some other countries for the horticulture sector. The Government can be proud of itself that there is a boat now bringing it across, even though we have it beside us. It is like telling the Arabs that we will sell them oil. This is the country that we are now shaping to be. We tell everyone that we are great. We are so clean and we are so green, but no more than the Mercosur deal that some of them are twisting and turning about voting for now, the reality is that in Europe and in Ireland we seem to be happy to import everything and say we only used it here, we did not dig it up out of the ground or we did not do this, that or the other. A bit of cop on is needed at the moment. This runaway train will be stopped. I assure the Green Party that the moment this pandemic is over-----

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