Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach says he and his Government will implement another carbon tax on 1 May. People everywhere cannot believe that, notwithstanding the savage cost of fuel, that the Taoiseach would even consider raising it further. The Taoiseach knows it was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. This is the price that the country and the people of Ireland, young and old, have to pay so that the Taoiseach will have the continued support of the Green Party to remain Taoiseach.

The Government has already torn down Bord na Móna. Every day since then, the cost of electricity has gone up. The Taoiseach promised the people of north Kerry when he was canvassing there that he would support Shannon LNG, but now he is against it. Surely, the Taoiseach knows what is happening around the world. China is building massive electricity-generating stations. Russia is mining coal and oil. The USA is still using massive passenger eight-cylinder vehicles, such as Cadillacs, Lincoln Continental, Chevrolet, massive 5.7 l and 7.8 l eight-cylinder engines. Petrol is $3.80 a gallon there. Here, most people are driving 1.6 l and 2 l cars. Deputy Eamon Ryan is saying that we are still wrong. He wants to price us off the road.

The Government will break the country with it targets. Russia, China, India and Africa will keep doing what they are doing. They will do more harm to the environment in one year than Ireland would do in 1,000 years. The Government will close the country down. It will finish up exporting our youth, as happened in the 1950s and early 1960s. The true influence that the war is having on our energy costs has not been felt yet. Hauliers and construction are in serious trouble. Roadbridge has seen the loss of 1,000 jobs. It will have a ripple effect and many others are on the brink. Already ten construction companies have gone down in the UK. We will follow. If every light was turned off and we all left this country, it would only make 0.13% in the worldwide context. We are all under the one sky. The one sun and the one moon is over us all. The Government can cripple our people, cause the loss of thousands of jobs and can break the people, paralyse our farmers and curtail their ability to continue producing food. Nobody has calculated the cost of importing food from places like Brazil or what emissions this will create. It will certainly be more than a farmer in Kerry who is selling an animal to a factory in Bandon or selling over the over the counter in Killarney, Kenmare, Castleisland or indeed Macroom.

Deputy Eamon Ryan has been talking about solar energy for years, but we are still waiting for the power purchase agreements, PPAs, to be put in place for microgeneration schemes so that small energy producers can sell extra energy back to the grid. Farmers and industry have acres of farm buildings with roofs on which they could put these solar panels on top.

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