Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

My colleagues in the Rural Independent Group and I have been very vocal on the cost of energy and the sky-rocketing costs of fuel for farmers, parents, hauliers and employers. In fact, it affects every person in this country. I again call for the abolition of carbon tax and I ask Sinn Féin whether it will now join with the Rural Independent Group in calling for the abolition of this punitive and out-of-touch carbon tax. At the very least, Ireland should now hold a referendum on carbon tax and give the people a say. Let us debate all the issues and see what the people have to say about carbon tax.

Last month, my Rural Independent Group colleagues and I moved a motion calling on the Government to hold a mini-budget to deal decisively with the cost of living and the energy price emergency. Unashamedly, all the Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Green Party Deputies blocked the motion, voting instead to maintain crippling fuel taxes despite the obvious pain this policy is inflicting on everyone. Our motion paved the way for the price of home heating oil, petrol and diesel to be dropped significantly. Instead, Government Deputies are allowing it to climb to more than €2 per litre in order to stay in office and rake in about €1.15 per litre in taxes for the Government.

Our policy on carbon tax has been consistent. We do not support this unfair and burdensome tax and have been warning of its detrimental impact for many years. Ordinary families and all rural residents are carbon-tax losers and are carrying the brunt of the Government’s mad agenda of keeping the ideology of the Green Party on side. We pleaded with Sinn Féin, the Labour Party, the Social Democrats, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party not to bring in this carbon tax because it is a tax on the people of rural Ireland and we were ignored. They all sat on their hands and quite happily voted for it. Now some of them are crying against it, while the Green Party is wagging the Government’s tail continuously, bringing this country close to being ground to a halt.

I spoke to a silage contractor who called into my clinic at the weekend. He said he is going to be paying an additional €130,000 for fuel this year, an astonishing increase. The Government is standing idly by while the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine has been going around today like a fool, telling people they will be given a few quid to allow them to sow a bit of seed. The Government is codding the farmers of Ireland. They are not fools. They are going bust. They cannot even get fuel at this stage, no matter what they are willing to pay for it. Farmers are in dire trouble. Fishermen have told me they will tie their boats to the piers until this fuel crisis has been resolved. One man told it would cost him €30,000 to go out to sea for the week, €27,000 of which would go to the quota. It would have been pointless for him to go out, so he tied his boat to the pier.

The Minister for Finance might not be interested but he soon will be because the public are outraged at the carry-on here. The 20% discount from public transport fares the Government announced in its mini-budget - it can call it what it wants but it was a joke - has sorted out people who use the DART, the Luas or the train but the private contractors of rural Ireland will not get it, so the young people of rural Ireland will not benefit from that decrease. The €200 off the electricity bill is farcical. The Government is laughing in people's faces. The people are struggling and it is not willing to make a move. It is drip-feeding small advantages that go nowhere. The soaring costs of food, heating, fuel and housing are causing social inequality and hardship and are pushing people into poverty.

See this speech in context