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

I thank Deputy Kerrane and Sinn Féin for organising this timely debate. The cost of fuel, especially diesel and petrol, is the main contributory reason for the increased cost of food. Lorry transport costs have increased significantly and farmers face increased costs to produce food. Whether they are dairy or beef farmers or tillage farmers, the savage extra cost of diesel alone and the considerable cost of fertiliser are driving production costs through the roof.

The Government should and could take less tax from fuel. It has been raking it in since the base cost increased. Other countries are taking less tax. Why can the Government not do the same? It is not fair on people who have to pay to go on the road, that is, every man or woman with a wheel. They are paying savage costs and it will not be long until they are ground to a halt. The Government could take less tax and that would help. We have to start somewhere, and as the teacher said to me long ago when I was in school, when you are unravelling a stocking, you should begin at the toe. We have to begin where the trouble started and that is with the increased costs, which have to be reduced.

The cost of electricity is also driving everything mad and it has increased every day since the Government closed Bord na Móna. The Government stonewalled and said it would have to get permission from the EU to reduce VAT on fuel, but no permission was needed when VAT was being increased. I have never heard of the Government having to go to the EU for permission to increase VAT, yet it had to ask the EU, or so it claimed, to be allowed to bring it down.

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