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

The Minister of State, Deputy Donovan, is a fellow Limerick man. Are the people of Europe aware that we cannot move away from fossil fuels because we have no alternatives? The Minister was elected by the people of County Limerick, who he represents, including pig farmers, workers in small industries and truckers. Everyone who has elected the Minister of State has asked him to have a voice, not to be told by his party's whip what to say and when to say it.

We have 2 million vehicles in this country. Most of them are in towns and villages around the rural areas that the Minister of State represents. These people have no public transport in place. Basically, the people in our area of County Limerick and other counties are paying for the infrastructure that the Government is putting into the cities. Yet, they are failing to put infrastructure into the counties. People are going to go hungry. People are going to be cold. People are going to have debt. This is all because of the failure of this Government to act.

The Government has been asked to cap the price of the tax on fuel. It has refused to help us on that. It brought out a system yesterday for €18 million, but it is only given to one sector of the truckers. It only covers people who have a road haulier licence. Every supplier in this country does not have a road haulier licence. Every producer does not have a road haulier licence. Only the people who transport, the subcontractors, do. The Government therefore has not helped anyone in our rural area, such as the producers who elected the Minister of State to represent County Limerick.

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