Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will make two points to the Deputy. He said the problem has got much worse, which I outlined earlier. It was striking that he did not elaborate on why it has got much worse. It is because of Putin's war on Ukraine. The Deputy seems incapable of articulating that in the context of this energy crisis, as do many on the left, for some strange reason. The bottom line is Putin's war in Ukraine and his weaponisation of energy constitute a major factor in the extraordinary price hikes we are witnessing. That said, we have to intervene, will intervene and did intervene since the Deputy raised it 12 months ago. Some €2.5 billion worth of cost-of-living measures were taken last year by this Government across the board to deal with the energy issue, the excise duty on petrol, diesel and so on. We reduced all of that last year.

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