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

I propose to share time with Deputies Michael Collins, Michael Healy-Rae and Danny Healy-Rae.

Fuel prices need to be reduced by a minimum of 50 cent and be locked in for a minimum of six months. The 15 cent and 20 cent reductions do not go far enough. Business owners, including quarry and construction business owners, have been ringing me this evening to say they have been told by companies to stop working because they can no longer sustain the expense of the fuel needed for running people to sites, transporting stone to build roads and so on. They are going to cease working and run on what little material they have at present. As I said, the reductions in fuel prices the Government is proposing do not go near far enough. The carbon tax it has implemented will raise €9.5 billion by 2030. The amount of extra tax it has taken on the fuel price increase is absolutely criminal. The Government will be remembered for what it has done. Does it realise what will happen down the road because of the cost of production in this country?

At the start of the Covid crisis, the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, stood in this House and asked people to grow lettuce on their south-facing windows. He encouraged them to go to the local hardware shop for supplies to paint the back of their houses. That is the mentality of a Minister in this Government. The same Minister stood in this House on another occasion and spoke about people sharing 30 cars among a population of 3,000 in rural areas. That is the mentality of the Minister. Now the Government is proposing a 15 cent reduction in fuel prices, in an escalating situation where there is supposed to be a 90-day reserve. The price increase should not have happened in the escalating way it did.

The responsibility of the Government is to this country but what it did next was turn to farmers and ask them to grow wheat and corn. It acknowledged that the sector is over-regulated and said it would reward farmers with a proposal, which we are being asked to vote on tonight, for a 2 cent reduction on agricultural diesel.

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