Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

I thank Sinn Féin for tabling this motion. However, there is an irony that is not lost on people in that Sinn Féin Deputies voted last year in favour of the climate action Bill, which paved the way for the carbon tax and the turf ban.

I have an image in my mind of Deputy Paul Murphy leaving Dublin in search of a turf mine with a speech in his pocket calling turf miners around the country to action. Unfortunately, Aontú is the only party that voted against the climate action Bill last year, which Bill was the start of many of these issues. One of the first things the Taoiseach did when he assumed office was demote the Department of Rural and Community Development and lump it in with the Department of Social Protection. He left poor old Deputy Ring without a Ministry, which was a big crisis for the then Government. Also, there was no senior Minister for the west of Ireland at the time. Sligo, Mayo, Galway, including Galway East, Roscommon, Clare, Limerick and Tipperary are without a representative in the Cabinet. This is a Dublin-centric Cabinet and Government. The weight of Government Deputies in the capital is incredible and is deciding the direction the Government is going in this matter. Ireland is incredibly lopsided and getting worse. Dublin is overheating. Right now, a third of the country is a sprawling commuter belt. People are commuting from Connacht, Munster and Ulster to Dublin to work. Much of rural Ireland is being depopulated, especially of its young people. The average age in Balbriggan is 30 while the average age in Killarney is 43. Since rural Ireland is being left out, young people have no option but to go to the sprawling commuter belt to get a job and raise a family. The actions of this Government, particularly of the Green Party, the tail that is wagging the dog in the Government, are incredible. The Government, like the country, is completely lopsided. It is way out of touch, especially with rural Ireland.

Does the Minister of State realise rural Ireland is on its knees? Utility bills are going through the roof. Gas bills are coming in at €600 and €700 and it costs well over a grand to fill an oil tank for the home. It is more costly for people in rural areas than urban areas because they do not have the public transport. They rely on their own cars to get to work or the shops. People in rural Ireland are far more likely to use oil than gas for home heating. Home heating oil has increased in price radically by comparison with other fuels in recent times. Many homes in rural Ireland are older homes that do not have the insulation necessary to keep in the heat. People are living from overdraft to overdraft. Just at this time, the Green Party, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil think it is a good idea to delete a heat source from their homes.

What planet is the Minister living on, given that he thought that in the middle of an energy and cost of living crisis it would be a good idea to delete a heat source from people's homes? It is absolutely incredible.

Turf is the only source of fuel for many homes in this country. It heats the radiators and stoves on which families cook food. Families are completely dependent on it. The idea that the Minister would stop a son or daughter providing turf to a mother or father, or to a person who had put €300 or €400 into the credit union to buy turf to keep his or her family going through the winter period, is incredible.

I also heard the Green Party Minister talk about the fact that burning wet turf and timber is as dangerous as burning coal in terms of respiratory illnesses. Who in their right mind burns wet turf and timber in rural Ireland? Does he think they have no cop-on at all? People dry it out every year, and when it is nice and dry they decide to light it.

Most of these homes are in rural areas and are one-off houses. The particulate levels are well dissipated by the time they come into contact with other people. There is a chasm between the Government's understanding of what is happening in rural Ireland and people's experience. Dublin Ministers and Deputies living in a concrete jungle - in a city full of pollution - are pointing fingers at rural Ireland for being the cause and source of the damage that is happening. It is an incredible situation.

At the same time, that same Government is supporting the Mercosur deal which sees wide elements of the Amazon being floored of its trees so that beef can be brought thousands of miles into this country. That has a far bigger impact on the environment than anything produced in this country. At the same time, massive data centres are being opened in this State which suck in the electricity of half a county.

Rural Ireland cannot understand what is going on with this Government. A mother and father cooking on a range using turf they got from their son cannot understand how the Government can favour other policies yet damn those families who are trying to survive. I ask the Government to not just put out statements to say it had strong words with the Green Party Minister today. Rather, I want the Government to put the idea to bed that a generation comprising mostly older people coming to the end of their lives are expected to go without the necessary fuel sources to live and are instead expected to find investment from somewhere to radically retrofit their homes.

The Government talks about retrofit figures in the country. The retrofit figures on annual basis are paltry. Last year there were only 18,000 retrofits and ten deep retrofits in the State. The Government cannot on the one hand take away the fuel source of a community and on the other provide nothing in return.

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