Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to outline to the Minister of State why the Minister, his party leader, is so deeply unpopular in rural Ireland and why he is so out of touch with rural Ireland. I want to describe to him the practical realities for people in Donegal. We have a situation whereby two thirds of homeowners in Donegal rely on home heating oil to heat their homes. Even more rely on solid fuel. They heavily rely on these two sources of fuel to heat their homes, particularly in winter. Despite the price of home heating oil increasing by 130%, something that has had a major impact on families in our county and across the west of Ireland, not a single cent worth of help was provided by the Government. Incredibly, the Government instead increased the carbon tax even further this month. Nothing was done to help those families. There are no supports available to help them retrofit their homes. They will have to take out further loans, unless they are lucky enough to have tens of thousands of euro in their savings accounts. There is nothing of real substance at all to help families to heat their homes.

Let us look at people who have to work and study in Donegal. The public transport system there is not fit for purpose. It has been under-resourced for years. It is not designed to connect workers with their workplaces. As a result, they have to have cars. Almost everybody who wants to work in Donegal must have a car. Everybody who wants to study in Donegal must also have a car.

Time and again I have submitted parliamentary questions to the Green Party leader, the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, to ask about electric charging infrastructure in Donegal. There was no urgency. There is nothing being done. If you are a homeowner who needs to heat your home or if you are a motorist who has to have a car filled with petrol or diesel to get by, you do not have alternatives in Donegal, unless you are very wealthy. What does the Government do for these people? It does not give them the carrot; it gives them the stick, every single time. It hits them with a carbon tax again and again and again. It punishes them for choices that they do not have. It punishes them for choices that they do not have. That is why there is anger. That is why turf was merely the straw that broke the camel’s back. People had enough of the indifference to their plight and the indifference to the reality that they face every day. If the Minister of State wants to know why there is this anger towards the leader of the Green Party and the Minister, that is why. The Minister is totally disconnected and totally out of touch with the reality of people's lives.

The Just Transition Alliance is telling the Green Party that it has not put in place a just transition commission. It is not in place. It has no dialogue with the social partners. It has no dialogue with the unions that represent the workers. The Green Party lectures people in rural Ireland about their responsibilities, but it never meets its own. It never meets its own. That is why there is such anger in places like Donegal. It will only grow more and more until the Green Party starts to listen to them and stands by them, rather than giving them the stick every time.

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