Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. The pandemic uprooted the lives of everybody in Ireland and had a severe impact on our business community. No one will forget particularly March of 2020, when an unprecedented situation befell us. The impacts of the pandemic spared no one and no organisation. Businesses of all sizes faced uncertainty that no one envisaged. I am proud of the actions taken by the previous and present Governments to protect jobs, livelihoods and lives during the pandemic. We stepped into the unknown to provide employees and employers with certain financial assistance, be it the pandemic unemployment payment, the TWSS or its successor the EWSS. There can be no doubt these measures prevented undue hardship for people and families throughout the country and helped businesses survive an existential crisis.

The Bill provides for a wide range of measures that will continue some of the supports brought in during the pandemic and for a number of other issues facing the nation today. It will continue supports for businesses in the time ahead, address continued instability in the business community and allow some businesses which previously lost eligibility to become eligible again for those supports. The CRSS will be allowed the flexibility it needs to act effectively, especially in relation to turnover rates.

We were all amazed by the courage and determination of front-line workers through the pandemic and it is easy, now that we have much easier access to vaccines and have reopened our economy, to minimise or dismiss the gravity of the situation we were in. Without vaccination or full knowledge of the transmissibility of the virus, nurses, doctors, hospital workers and many others stepped into the breach and risked their lives to protect others and save lives. The Bill will facilitate the one-off payment of €1,000 to front-line workers and ensure this payment is not subject to income tax, USC or PRSI. It is right we make this offer as a token of our gratitude to workers who risked so much for our society.

Notwithstanding the comments of other Members, the criteria are quite clear. I understand there are some grey areas and I am sure the Minister has received similar representations to what I have received. I hope they can be ironed out in the coming weeks.. The Bill will also benefit those purchasing a home, which is an incredibly important part of the commitments this Government has given, by increasing the rate of stamp duty introduced by the Government on the bulk purchase of properties, amounting to 10%. The Bill will allow cost rental homes to be refunded the difference in stamp duty between the higher and standard rates.

We have all watched the events unfolding in Ukraine with horror. For good reason, there is great concern about the knock-on effects the war will have on day-to-day expenses for our citizens and on European economies. There is no way we can avoid them. Europe's reliance on oil and gas from Russia has exposed a chink in the armour of the EU. The war has already resulted in the determination of EU nations to reduce their reliance on Russian gas and oil. However, unlike the US and UK and because of the exposure certain countries have, we are unable to remove ourselves from that market. Ireland does not use any Russian oil or gas, but we use oil and gas from countries that avail of Russian oil and gas. Therefore, the price of their oil and gas will increase and that will have a knock-on effect here. Whichever way we turn, unfortunately, we will face increased prices. While Ireland does not receive a substantial supply from Russia, our partners do and this will place a significant burden on us in the coming months and, most likely, years. It is therefore welcome that this Bill seeks to ease the burden at the pump.

Excise duty will be eased as of midnight tonight in tangible terms. It will mean 20 cent a litre is taken off petrol prices and 15 cent a litre is taken off diesel. These are important steps to help families at this time of international uncertainty. I note and want to put on the record that I contacted several service stations in my constituency last week when I noted prices had gone up. They had not received a delivery of fuel to their stations. They had just cranked up the prices. As of this morning, I understand that another service station, not in my constituency but in the city centre, has cranked up its prices, even though it has not received a delivery of oil. I verified this fact. It was done, I presume, on the back of the notification that there would be an excise duty reduction. This is reprehensible. I appreciate that the Government is not in the business of setting prices for products, however we might wish we could, but it was a rather disgraceful act. I know I am not alone in observing this phenomenon in recent weeks.

The war in Ukraine also reminds us of the importance of doubling down in our effort to produce even more clean renewable energy here at home. Lessons are being learned throughout the European Union regarding the need to leverage ourselves off Russian oil and gas, and oil and gas in general. This is a good and positive step. Investing in our renewable energy sector will not only reduce our reliance on international markets and events, but will also mean that we will be able to deliver cheaper energy to every home in Ireland and see the surplus energy that is created being exported. This offers us a potential scenario that Ireland has rarely had, namely, to be a large-scale exporter of clean and responsibly sourced energy. This would not only bring wealth to our nation but also jobs and investment in communities throughout the country.

In the years ahead, when we look back on the pandemic - and we must be mindful that it is not over - we will consider the value of entering a time of national crisis from a position of strength, one I believe we would not have been able to address appropriately had it not been for the restorative measures implemented over the past decade, despite some of them being very tough. We cannot forget the lesson that while it was easy to say it was the right thing to do, and it was, we as a nation must also understand that we need to be able to finance such actions. I shudder to think where we might have been had it not been for the restorative actions of the Irish people in terms of the restoration of the economy.

We do not know where the Ukraine war will lead us as a nation or a continent. We do know there will be economic and financial impacts as we look to the future. Therefore, we must continue to manage our finances responsibly and allow ourselves the space to react to any crisis that may emerge out of the blue and cause havoc to our economy if we were not to manage it correctly.

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