Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the reduction in mineral oil tax by 3 cent per litre on marked gas oil. As the Association of Farm & Forestry Contractors in Ireland, FCI, has highlighted, we must ensure that enough green diesel is ring-fenced for the contractors, especially with silage season coming up. There is a concern about basically getting in crops or getting enough fodder for the winter. Even if it is through reserves, we must ensure that if things start getting tight, there is enough green diesel around to be able to look after contractors. You reap what you harvest. We need to have enough stuff there to get in fodder for cattle and all the different animals on farms for the winter.

On home heating oil, it is regrettable that nothing is being done for householders. I know that we made decisions on some bits of it, but I think a few of us have touched on the fact it is a sad day when we have to go over to these so-called masters in Europe to get permission. I do not bow to them. I do not know why we have to go over to ask if we can do this, that or the other, or we may be at risk of going into a higher rate. It is a damnable situation. Either we have our sovereignty as a country or we do not. The Minister should realise that the price hikes for the people who can get gas, whether it is in Dublin or in other parts of the country, and those using home heating oil, have been colossal. We must ensure that the vulnerable are looked after.

On the issue of the carbon tax, it is the most vulnerable and those on the lowest incomes that use a lot of solid fuels. As was touched on earlier, currently approximately 50% of our stock is social housing. The Government plans to do 30% of the retrofitting of all housing by 2030, which is welcome. There is nobody against that. However, there is huge anger out there about what the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications has said over the last two weeks. What we must remember is that many of these people have a range. Many of them are elderly. They may have a back boiler that basically heats their house. They are hearing all of this stuff that is going on at the moment. Some of them are in fair sized towns. What is the choice for them? There is a carbon tax and a rise in the cost of nearly everything for them. If they have a car, there is a carbon tax on the diesel or the petrol that they buy. If they have home heating oil, there is a carbon tax on that. I know it has to be done because the lights have to be kept on, but at the same time, the State will throw 7,000 tonnes of coal a day into the likes of Moneypoint and will not pay carbon tax. People can zoom off on holiday. I believe that 750 flights come into Dublin Airport a day, and not one bit of carbon tax is paid on aviation fuel. That really smacks people in the face. They believe that they are the pawns that are being used in all of this.

On the turf issue, there are people in rural areas - and in the constituencies of both the Minister and the Minister of State in towns in counties Laois and Cork - who will buy a couple of trailer loads of turf.

On the other hand, and this is the reality, many of these people are on, say, €13,000 a year with the pension and they get the fuel allowance with that. What they buy is maybe ten or 15 bags of turf to keep them going. I will tell the Minister why they buy it. Kerosene was 43 cent in March 2020 and it is €1.30 today, and gas has also gone up. The reason they buy it is because it is a cheaper fuel that they can afford. The Minister does not have to be a mathematician. I hear all of these statistics coming out from the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications suggesting that they see a bit of an upsurge. No wonder they do. There is a war on, first of all, and the price has trebled. People did not get three times the pension so, obviously, they have to use their money as they have it.

We need to be very careful where we are going on this. I have seen a bog battle before in 2010 but I have never seen such anger in communities as what is there at the moment. It is not the Green Party of the Minister, Deputy Ryan, because it is not thought much of in rural Ireland; it is Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael that are going to be the big losers if this fellow is let run the way he is going. The Minister has to be hauled back. Common sense has to come into it. We are all into making sure that no wet timber is sold. I backed that last year in order to get the moisture right in timber at under 25%. We do it a simple way. There is a lot of talk about kiln drying. If it is seated in a kiln for seven, eight or nine months, it is sound, it is 100%, and the moisture is down. To take the example of the peat briquette, I cannot for the life of me understand why if I have a peat briquette in one hand and a sod of turf in the other, they are telling me that I can burn that one in the fire but not the other one.

I had it tested last week by a mechanical engineer. The turf that was cut last May, when they checked it out, was at 18%. No one in their right mind would burn wet timber or wet turf. Park the environment, the first thing they would do is burst the flue liner in their house. It is not a thing anyone would set out to do. There was a problem with wet timber where people were cutting it, splitting it and going off with it, and it was bad timber at that, such as spruce and the like. I fully believe in the regulation of that. We can do the same in this regard. We can make sure that quality product in big urban areas is sold but we do not have to say to somebody that we are banning it. That idea of banning for sale or distribution needs to come out of all of this. There must be common sense. People will work with the Minister but he cannot come out and make a big, bold statement and then go off hiding.

See this speech in context