Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I support the Sinn Féin amendment. Many workers are feeling hard done by. From today, the average working family will be approximately €15 per week better off. When all these increases come into place, it means nothing to those workers. I acknowledge the risk of poverty to anyone on social welfare, particularly those on disability, pensioners and one-parent families and the need for these people need to be supported. However, we simply cannot forget that it must be pay people to work. We see businesses from the smallest to the biggest looking for employees at the moment. However, it simply is not worth a candle for people to go to work because they are not being paid enough and they are being punished with taxation and all kinds of levies, especially the carbon tax. This tax has nothing to do with carbon or the environment. It is all to do with penal taxes and hitting the poorest people in the most remote areas.

As Deputy Carthy said, we cannot live in the country without a car. If any of our sons and daughters get jobs or go to college, they have to have a car. The Government has not provided the fancy public transport it has talked about. It is not there. It is fine to give reductions in fares on public transport, but what good is it to people who do not have public transport? That is the realpolitik of the issue. The Minister's ancestors are from Tipperary and he has been asked to come there and see how difficult it for people to live.

I want to re-listen to the record. According to Eurostat, this little country of ours is currently the most expensive country in the EU, with prices 46% higher than the average cost across EU. That figure is almost double the cost of living in any other country. This is shocking. That notwithstanding, the Government and the Minister believe it is right and appropriate to drive up prices further with a regressive carbon tax that disproportionately impacts on rural citizens. It is shocking. I welcome that the Minister has rowed back on some of the increases until next April, August and October. However, people live in the here and now. Home heating should not be a luxury. People have to heat their houses. Are they going to die frozen and hungry in their homes? Ireland is 40% more expensive than any other country in the EU. What planet are you on?

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