Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

As the Minister with responsibility for energy and for transport I absolutely realise the need for us to protect our people through these extraordinary times. War is setting the price, though thankfully the price of Brent crude oil went down to $101 per barrel yesterday. It had been up as high as $120 and $130 in recent weeks. In two weeks' time there will be that slight reduction but it is high beyond compare. The price of gas is even higher and is of a real concern with respect to the impact on fuel poverty. We absolutely have to do everything of every political perspective to try to protect our people in that time.

There are certain constraints on what you can do. I had a meeting with the Irish Road Haulage Association, IRHA, on Tuesday where we discussed at length what we can do and recognising that we had already in its case introduced a licensed haulier support scheme with €100 for every truck a week for the eight-week period to help through incredibly difficult times and try to counter some of the inflationary effect. The IRHA asked, as the Deputy has, could we cut excise further. I will explain why that is not an option. We have to follow European law. The European energy taxation directive-----

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