Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

You would not know from the last two weeks of grudge politics between Fine Gael and Sinn Féin but the crises that are besetting the people of Ireland at the moment have not gone away whatsoever. Some 80% of the people of this State are struggling with the cost-of-living crisis. That seems to have been forgotten about by the political establishment. Figures provided to me by the Minister for Finance show that the Government is profiting in terms of VAT from the crisis. Last year, the Government received more in VAT on fuel and energy than ever before when many families are living on overdrafts and many more are in hock to moneylenders. Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party are taking more in VAT and fuel taxes than they did in any previous year. The VAT on electricity last year reached record heights of €381 million.

People struggling to pay for the heating of their homes pay 40% more on VAT on electricity last year than the previous year. Hard-pressed motorists are paying 30% more on petrol than they did in the previous year. Diesel is 20% more. Cumulatively, they have spent €700 million on VAT on those two fuel sources. VAT on gas and oil and solid fuel is reaching record highs. That is before we even talk about the Government's imposition of carbon taxes. Yes, the Government gave a few bob back but it pilfered that money from people's pockets in the first place.

Many people are looking nervously at the planned increase in fuel excise duty that the Government plans for February. The Minister has stood before us many times and said there is nothing more that this Government can do to help people with the crisis in the cost of living but there is. What is said is patently untrue. The Government could do what the Spanish Government did and stop hammering people and reduce the VAT on fuel. Will the Minister categorically say there will be no rise in fuel excise in February?

Another issue which is hitting people really hard in their pockets is that of mortgage interest rates. People are struggling to pay them now. Most mortgage holders will be paying far more in the next year. European Central Bank rate rises mean that tracker mortgage holders will have to fork out an additional €3,000 on their mortgages on average. However, the people who are most hammered are the 100,000 mortgage holders who have been sold out to the vulture funds. Families in the grip of those vulture funds will be paying rates of as high as 7% and they will not be able to lock into fixed rates. This is a two-tier mortgage market. It was created by the last Government and it is presided over by this one. Some 100,000 families are now second-class citizens among mortgage holders. They have no protection from profiteering mortgage vulture funds.

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