Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In the midst of a cost-of-living crisis of fuel supply insecurity and price hikes, the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, wants to ban the sale of turf from September. Since that came out, it has been one long fiasco after another. After showing complete disregard for the 9% of rural households in this country who depend on turf to heat their homes, it quickly went to the Minister making outlandish and dismissive statements like "we won't jail your granny" and unworkable suggestions relating to population limits. All this shows a strange disregard for the reality of the situation so many people face. There are people in Tipperary choosing between heat and food. That is where we are in 2022, and that is on the Government's watch.

No matter how much the Minister, Deputy Ryan, wants everyone to make the transition immediately, the Government has made it impossible for many. I have spoken to many people across Tipperary who would like to have their homes retrofitted, but that is out of their reach, and the coalition is to blame for that. It failed to plan properly and instead rolled out schemes that discriminate based on people's level of income. It is plain wrong, and now it wants to ban turf, which is the only fuel that has not gone up in price with inflation. The price of home heating has increased the most, and the Government would not cut excise on it. Instead it wants to add the carbon tax. Far more people live in energy poverty than receive the fuel allowance, yet at a time when there is an immediate crisis the Government would prefer to see them with fewer choices available to them.

Of course we must take steps to ensure that people live with proper air quality and a good environment for future generations. Sinn Féin supports that, no matter what the Government and some in the Opposition who spoke earlier want to spin. We are not climate deniers, but the Government is going about this backwards. It is undermining the climate action message with a fixation on punitive measures. The Government should have identified those who are dependent on turf and at risk of fuel poverty and supported them to transition by prioritising them for schemes like retrofitting or putting electric cars within their reach. This Government has not even established how many people are in energy poverty here because it has not lived up to its commitment to do so in the 2016 strategy to combat energy poverty. Sinn Féin will bring forward a Bill to address that in due course.

I call on the Government, especially its backbenchers who are conspicuous by their absence this evening, to scrap plans to ban the sale of turf from September 2022, cancel the carbon tax increase due to commence on 1 May and temporarily remove excise on home heating. I call on the Government Deputies who have called foul over this to stand by their recent commitments and support this motion.

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