Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to get the opportunity to speak on this most serious matter. It is affecting every man, woman and child. Everyone is suffering because of the high cost of energy and fuel prices. While costs have increased worldwide, more than half the cost of fuel and energy is going in taxes to the Government. Indeed, €60 in every €100 spent on fuel, diesel, petrol or home heating oil is paid in carbon taxes. The sheiks in Iran, Iraq or wherever is getting somewhere in the region of €15 of that, while transport and retail makes up the rest of it. The retail outlets, that is, the petrol stations, get around €3.50. We should remember that that is charged on top of all these carbon and other taxes. The Government is taking the people for a ride all right. Perhaps we will also run out of petrol.

The Government gave away €225 million last week in the name of climate change. This money was collected from carbon taxes that hard-pressed Irish people were forced to pay and will be forced to pay. The Government appears to be hanging its coat on offshore energy, which may not happen for more than ten years. The Government closed down Bord na Móna and one third of Moneypoint, only to have to open it again. It put in nothing to replace the generating stations that it closed. It is opposing the Shannon LNG project. It is telling us to buy electric cars when there is nowhere to plug them in. It is very likely that there will be no electricity to charge such vehicles when people go to charge them.

In the recent past we have had eight amber alerts. We have the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, saying we will bring in electricity and we will have a connection to France and the UK. We are all under the one sky. They have to generate electricity there also somehow. It costs more to bring it from far away. There is a carbon footprint in that. We have had 35 electricity price increases in recent months. The cost has increased by almost 20%. Imagine it has increased by almost one fifth. The price of gas has increased by 14%. Home heating oil has increased by 50% from 38 cent this time last year to 84 cent now. The Government is closing Bord na Móna, Shannonbridge and Lanesborough and 10,000 acres of bog are left in Littleton. We are importing peat from Latvia and briquettes from Germany. At the same time, a special case is being made for Romania because it relies so much on coal. It will be allowed to produce coal and sell it and do what it likes with it. We cannot cut a sod of turf. The Government does not want us to cut a sod of turf.

Householders and people trying to heat their homes cannot cope with the savage energy costs. Farmers are being put through the mill. The increased cost of diesel means tractors, jeeps, cars and other work vehicles cost way more to run. These extra costs are eating into the profit margins of farmers. We rely on commercial transport for all of our goods, as has been said. When the cost of transport increases the cost of everything else increases and it has done so. We are calling on the Government to increase the diesel rebate in commercial industry from 7.5 cent to 15 cent. It should be doubled to give people a chance to keep going. It is one thing if we have to pay more for services, food and hardware but if we cannot get them it will be way more serious. People trying to heat their homes are in a desperate way. The Government left one serious crowd behind in the budget. These are people on social welfare benefit payments. They cannot get a fuel allowance. At the same time, they must pay exorbitant prices for their fuel and perhaps must leave their homes without heating. They end up cold and getting pneumonia and other problems people get when their homes are not heated.

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