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

I also will not support the Bill. Have the proposers of the Bill and those who propose to support it considered the implications it will have for small businesses in particular? Who is going to pay for this? I will set out exactly who is going to pay for it. The people selling the produce will have to pay for it, but they will then pass that cost on to the consumer. As such, the person consuming the goods will pay for the labelling of the goods. I am not sure if Members realise it, but families are struggling. People are struggling to pay their energy bills, put food on the table and send their children to school and college in order that they can be educated.

What is this all about? This Bill relating to carbon footprint labelling is about putting more expense on struggling families. That is exactly what it will do because this will not happen automatically or without a cost, and that cost will be passed on to the consumer. People need to wake up. As stated by Deputy Michael Collins in regard to the bales of briquettes, people thought it was a good idea to stop the production here of briquettes. Where is the carbon footprint on the labels of the peat being imported from Latvia or the briquettes being imported from Germany? Wake up and smell the roses. Some Members have spoken about a move to a four-day working week, everybody having something for nothing and the need for us to reduce the time we spend working.

For God's sake, who is going to pay for it? Sure, do you know what we will do? We will stop working all together, every one of us, and we will stop paying tax and the money will just fall out of the sky. The people sitting over here are living in a never-never wonderland, where they make it all up, with their "the sooner we go to a four day week" and so on. Of course, we should not work at all. We should all stop. Will people wake up and get real? They need to realise that people have to work, pay taxes and keep the wheels of our economy rolling.

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