Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I know the Minister runs a constituency office. If it is anything like my advice clinics or those of Sinn Féin or the Rural Independent Group, which has tabled this motion, it ought to busy with people who are presenting household bills and the choices they have to make daily or weekly on whether to heat their homes or feed their families. These are not fabricated concerns on this side of House but the very real concerns of real people in communities throughout the country. There is a lot in this motion and much to be commended in it. Deputy McGrath wanted to have a debate purely on the pig farming industry for which time has not been allocated, but it was included in this motion. It shines a light on an industry that is struggling. I am sure Deputy McGrath would have preferred a distinct section of Dáil business was dedicated to it, but it is included in this motion, probably rightfully so.

The cost-of-living crisis is widespread and cutting through every single community in every county in our country. The Labour Party, like Sinn Féin, the Social Democrats and now the Rural Independent Group, have all brought motions over recent weeks to bring solutions to the Minister to try to tackle this issue. We support the call for a mini-budget, which has been on record for a couple of weeks. A whole-of-government approach is required to tackle the soaring cost of living. The cost of living is one way of putting it. Another way is that it is making the poor poorer. That is the reality of the cost-of-living crisis. For those who can barely afford to get by when things are relatively benign, when things take a turn as they have now, due to many factors that, in fairness, are outside the control of our State but are impacting on people throughout the country, it is the poor who suffer the most.

We have put forward proposals that we ask the Minister to re-examine. We need to look at an immediate rent freeze and a roadmap to reduce Irish mortgage interest rates to the EU average. It is a scandal that they remain so high. We need to provide emergency energy cost-relief packages for households, which should include a temporary time-limited reduction in the VAT rate on energy and fuel up until the next budget, and seek an EU derogation to allow for long-term retention of the historic 13.5% rate on electricity and gas, when such a temporary VAT cut expires. Considering everything we have done to bend over backwards for the EU over the past decade and more, we can and should apply for a derogation on this. There is no reason we should not. We should introduce additional targeted supports for those in energy poverty by widening access to the fuel allowance and commit to the introduction of a refundable carbon tax credit for low-income households to support the long-term phasing out of fossil fuels.

I will pause on that point and the point about the carbon tax. I am deeply troubled and concerned about how the carbon tax is being discussed overall in the discourse. There are many reasons the cost of living is rising. Many taxes are contributing to that, in addition to other reasons apart from taxation. This motion details excise duty on petrol and diesel, for example, and we have spoken about VAT. There has been an effort by some, however, which we saw from Sinn Féin during last night's debate, to toxify the carbon tax to the point where it becomes so deeply unpopular that it will be included in election manifestos going into the next election and will ultimately be cut or wiped out altogether. There is no doubt carbon tax is difficult for many, especially those on low incomes or no incomes, but there are ways we can target supports for those families without having to row back on carbon tax. Carbon tax is not the only method for tackling climate action, but it is an important one. Anyone who is serious about climate knows it is one of the important measures. This effort has not just been going on over the past couple of weeks or during the debate on last night's motion, and it is not just a big element of this motion. I have seen it when I have been on the doors over recent months. Targeted messaging is going on through social media campaigns to try to turn the carbon tax into the new water charges and into a tax so deeply unpopular and politically toxic that it has to be defeated and rowed back on.

We need to retrofit homes. The energy consumption by housing in our country accounts for just under a third of all energy emissions. It has to be targeted and it has to be funded. It is difficult and it will be a long process. There is a degree of ambition in the package announced last week, but we need to see it work and we need to see it go quickly to homes that need it the most. There is an awful lot attached to it. We need to see apprentices and experts in these retrofitting areas in the trades be available for this work. There is an awful lot to it.

I am deeply troubled because climate cannot wait. It cannot. We are seeing it in the three back-to-back storms of the past week. There are articles about how the jet streams in the Atlantic are changing due to climate change. These are the reasons these weather events are happening. The science is indisputable. Where the rubber meets the road on it is in areas such as this. That is what disappointing because there are so many different ways we can help people in difficulty due to the cost-of-living crisis. We can help people through direct targeting of supports and payments to get through this and to be able to phase out fossil fuels in their lives. There seems to be a sledgehammer approach to this, which unfortunately will crack the mature debate we need to have about climate. It does it a disservice and it takes away from the real measures, some of which are in this motion and other motions, and many of which are in the motions we tabled two weeks ago.

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