Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to get this opportunity. I thank Sinn Féin for going against the carbon tax tonight. We will not talk about what happened in the past, but we are glad and we hope it will continue in this vein against the carbon tax because it is totally and absolutely unfair. We have been against it from day one. This will hurt many people at midnight tonight. It will hurt the people who are going to work. It will hurt the people who are taking children to school. It will hurt all those in the transport business. It will hurt those in the agricultural contracting business. It will hurt farmers. It will make life more miserable for all these people. We have seen the cost of fuel go up already and, yes, much of it is caused by foreign markets or whatever. It is reprehensible to think the Government is putting on a carbon tax tonight at 12 o'clock. When we came up the road today, it cost €1.83 a litre or whatever it is. It will be €1.85 and maybe more as we are going down on Thursday.

I say to the Minister that this carbon tax has nothing at all to do with reducing emissions because there are other options and he is saying that there are not. There is such a thing as hydrotreated vegetable oil, HVO. Producing this oil could help farmers and give them another enterprise to plant rapeseed and get paid for it. This option would mean a reduction in emissions of almost 90%. The good thing about it is people do not have to buy an expensive electric car. They can just pour it into the same diesel tank in their cars that they poured the diesel into this morning. It would not cost people anything extra.

The Minister has talked about the carbon tax being used for heat pumps. Fitting these heat pumps to many houses will cost €50,000. People have to pay for it upfront and they then may get a grant of €25,000. Where will hard-pressed people get that €25,000? He is giving no thought at all to that. This HVO could be poured directly into the kerosene tank with a minor adjustment to the boiler for heating people's houses. That has to be thought of. The Minister has a one-track mind and is hanging his shirt on electricity.

At the same time, the Government stopped us getting from getting another gas from the west through Shannon LNG. It is also giving no consideration to LPG which was available 50 years ago and there are no emissions at all from that. Fellows fitted them to petrol cars at that time and they can be fitted to diesel cars now with no extra cost and no savage cost. I saw an electric car out in the yard the other day and when I asked the cost of it, I was told €65,000. Who has that to pay? There is no option to buy second-hand electric cars. People do not have that kind of money to spend in rural Ireland. The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, may want people to cycle and forget about cars altogether. What I am saying to him is that if he is in Scartaglen, is it not a nice thing to be asked to cycle into Killarney and up to Cork to go to work or in Gneeveguilla or some other place like that. That is not fair. By charging people the carbon tax, the Minister is just codding them. Anyone supporting him is trying to cod the people. This carbon tax is very unfair when fuel is so expensive.

I have a lot more to say about this, but the Government is denying the people. There is another thing and even the media up there do not print it. The batteries for electric cars are being produced by child labour in the Congo. You are denying that and at the same time you are talking about helping children. To hell with you; you are there too long. Tomorrow is too long to have you there again.

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