Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

Utility bills are going through the roof right across the country. People are seeing gas bills coming through the door of €600 and €700. People are paying well over €1,000 to fill their oil tanks at the moment. These are eye-watering figures. These are amounts of money that people simply do not have. Many people are going into debt to try to cover these costs. I know of one woman in Meath who saw her natural gas bill travel from €187 to €628 in the space of two bills. I saw one SSE Airtricity bill leap from €209 to €864 from one bill to the next. If we add this to all the other costs that people are experiencing including childcare - I know one couple who are spending €1,300 per month on a child minding service in Dublin - most families are really suffering with regard to their income and their ability to spend. In real terms, spending power has fallen by €2,000 in the space of one year. People's incomes have fallen by about €2,000 in real terms in the space of one year. I know people who have to change the way they are living at the moment in order to deal with this. I know people who are going without showers, people who are going without food and people who are going without heat. I was speaking to an elderly gentleman a few weeks ago who is getting rid of the land line from his house to be able to make sure that he can make ends meet for himself.

The Government states, on a regular basis, that external factors are at the heart of the price increases. If we compare Ireland to other European Union countries, Ireland is an outlier with the costs that people are spending. Ireland is now the sixth most expensive country in Europe in which to live. With rent, Ireland is ranked the third most expensive, with only Switzerland and Luxembourg ranking ahead of us. Dublin is the fourth most expensive city in terms of price in the whole of Europe. Three Swiss cities beat Dublin at the top of the most expensive list. Right now, again, this Government is presiding over a State that is at the worst element of the measurements for the real experiences of people's lives.

There are many levers the Government has in its own hands. We have spoken about these levers. We have spoken about child care and public services. I thank the Government for listening to one of Aontú's proposals some weeks ago when we asked for a reduction in the cost of public transport. Again, it was a meagre reduction when it could have been game changing in getting people onto public transport and reducing costs for people. I have asked the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, a number of times if he will go to the European Union to seek a derogation with regard to VAT rates on fuel in the State. The Minister and the Taoiseach have refused to do that.

Carbon tax is another element where the Government has a lever in its own hands. Carbon tax is one of the most blunt tools that a Government can use. The Government sets a carbon tax years in advance of actually knowing the circumstances in which people will be living. I ask the Department to think about this. The Government is completely oblivious and completely blind to the actual cost of fuel and energy in people's lives in two, three and four years' time, and yet it has already set the tax that will be imposed then. Fuel could actually double in price and the Government would still plan to increase the carbon tax on that fuel in a number of years' time. In any measure of fairness in tax, and in any measure of a tax to implement at a time, that has to be wrong. There is a problem there.

I agree with Deputy Naughten that there needs to be a ceiling on market price, plus a carbon tax ceiling, beyond which we do not go, to make sure there is not a negative effect on the way people are living their lives at the moment. We are told that the whole purpose of a carbon tax is to move people from that product, through price, to an alternative. But, if the market has already achieved that price, adding to that price is purely punitive at that stage and is not actually having any effect in moving people away. People are still paying that price because they do not have an alternative and because they are locked into that fuel source or that energy source. It is punitive and it is hurting those families. It is reducing their ability to live. I am asking the Government to take into consideration our objective. Our plan is a ceiling between the market price and the actual carbon tax, over which we will not go year to year, to make sure that average families are not penalised into not being able to pay for what they need in their lives.

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