Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

For the record, of every €17 in fuel, the Government takes €10 in tax. That is a fact. This targets the 1 million people who are now below the poverty line in this country, such as those who are on social welfare, pensioners, the working middle-class and the self-employed. This hits every one of us in our pockets today.

The Minister mentioned the pig farmers. If a pig farmer had 500 sows, his ESB costs last year were €2,000 per month. His ESB costs today are €4,000. While I welcome the €20,000 increase, it will not even cover the increase in the ESB to rear 500 sows. That is another fact. Today's figures show that the Government took in tax a record €68.4 billion in 2021. Income tax took in €2,956 million up on the 2020 figure. That is €2,956 million. That is up 17.4% from 2020 in tax. The Minister comes in here and tells me that the Government is doing everything to protect the farmers and the working class. All it has done is take extra tax. Now the Minister is saying that he is giving out money.

People need direct intervention now. Direct intervention will be caused with this mini-budget. The mini-budget is looking for a 5% reduction in VAT on all fuels, electricity and home heating oil. That is how we can help the people in Ireland today, by putting money directly into their pocket. That would help everyone, no matter if they were a farmer, unemployed, working or an old age pensioner. It would help everyone in this country if the Government did that.

According to figures from the Central Statistics Office, CSO, 700,000 houses depend on oil heating. The Government talks about a retrofit. Limerick County Council has said that it is retrofitting 60 social houses in the autumn of this year. However, there are 700,000 houses that depend on oil in this country. What does the Government do? It comes up with a retrofit programme, but the people must have money in their accounts. People do not have the extra money to do the retrofitting. They can barely survive and put food on the table. Why can the Government not understand that? It was elected to help the people in the here and now. The Government is destroying families. The next generation coming up cannot even get to colleges, because of the cost of fuel and there is no public transport.

The Government is in a bubble and it needs to get out of it. It seems when that they come up to Dublin they think on a completely different wavelength. The wavelength they will get when they go to Limerick city and county, as well as elsewhere in the country, is that people will remember the Government. They will say that for every €17 they put into their car, the Government takes €10 back from them. That does not include what they have taken from adults clothes and the price of milk, butter and bread. All the basics, which we need to live, are taxed. The Government comes out and says it is giving €20,000 and €1 million there. It should do the right thing and reduce VAT and put it back into everyone’s pockets.

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