Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I accept certainly that there were efforts made and some support given but if the Tánaiste calls this a dynamic response from the Government, you can call me Davy or some other name from Mars or some place. It is shocking. Why is the Government so staunchly opposed to bringing in oil from Barryroe and to gas exploration off our coasts? Will the Tánaiste accept the fact that the data centres are guzzling electricity and will continue to do so? Will he accept that the fastest way to help our citizens is to cut the energy taxes, which is a budgetary measure? The Government has a trick o' the loop job done on the carbon tax in saying that it is not a budgetary measure. Governments passed it here for ten years. Every Member, bar six or seven of us, voted for that in this House. The Government cannot con the people. It can take tangible measures instead of window dressing and moving money here and there. People are hurting. They are in an awful situation. The Government made a mess of school transport with its big announcements, which were ill-thought out or not thought out at all. So the Government's thought process seems to be divided. All it seems to want to do is keep the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, in power. Whatever he wants, the Taoiseach to be and the current Taoiseach, ask him "How high?". The Minister is destroying our nation, our families and our children, and Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Independents are supporting him and his Green Party. Independents are giving other Independents a bad name by supporting the Government on every whim.

See this speech in context