Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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We welcome three people, the Rev. Karen Sethuraman, Ben Collins and Claire Mitchell, who gave a fascinating presentation today on Protestant perspectives on constitutional change. They are very welcome here today.

The measures the Taoiseach brought forward yesterday to address soaring fuel prices are not good enough. He has short-changed working people, people with little or no support, working every hour that God sends and still struggling to get by. He short-changed them on diesel, he short-changed them on petrol and he completely abandoned the 750,000 households who rely on home heating oil. Most of these families do not receive the fuel allowance. They have seen the price of home heating oil double in a matter of weeks. What was the Taoiseach's offer to them? It was a 2 cent reduction per litre and a lousy €20 off a fill of oil that has skyrocketed to around €1,700. That is what families are dealing with in the here and now. That took some neck, all the more so given that this lousy €20 will be taken back when the Government increases carbon taxes in a couple of weeks.

Last night, the Taoiseach had the opportunity to change course and to do right by these households, but instead he dug in. Sinn Féin proposed an amendment to the financial resolution that would give proper relief on petrol and diesel, completely remove excise and strip carbon tax from home heating oil, but the Government voted that solution down. It would not budge.

Clearly, households being able to afford to heat their homes is not a priority for Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil. Their actions yesterday revealed their true priorities. For all the lip service, for all the tea and sympathy, yesterday, they had a real chance to make a big difference for hundreds of thousands of households hammered by soaring prices, and they chose to leave them behind.

Previously, I have told the Taoiseach about a 94-year-old woman on a fixed income whose heating oil bill doubled in days. She is now faced with paying an extortionate bill or being cold. I have also told the Taoiseach about the mother who received a quote for her fill of oil and did not know if she would have enough money left to get that week's shopping. These are the people the Taoiseach has abandoned. What has he to say to them today? Yesterday, he told them that they were on their own. Remember that almost 500,000 households already could not afford electricity or gas bills, yet with his eyes wide open the Taoiseach will push many households who rely on home heating oil into desperate situations - more stress, more pressure, more hardship.

Tá teaghlaigh a bhraitheann ar ola teasa tí tréigthe ag Fianna Fáil agus Fine Gael. D'fhág an Rialtas na teaghlaigh seo i gcruachás gan aon fhaoiseamh. Níl sé maith go leor.

Households who rely on home heating oil matter. They need support, but the Taoiseach has thrown them under the bus. How could he think it is good enough to treat these families in this way? It is not right. It is not fair. Sinn Féin has provided the Taoiseach with the solution: to completely remove excise duty and strip out carbon tax from home heating oil. That is what the Taoiseach should do to give these families real relief because he cannot leave them on their own.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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Ní aontaím leis an Teachta. Mar a dúirt mé inné, tá an Rialtas ag déanamh gach aon iarracht cabhair agus tacaíocht a thabhairt do dhaoine, go háirithe na daoine is boichte agus ar ioncam íseal sa tír seo. Sin a dhein muid inné leis an bpacáiste a d'fhoilsíomar.

I disagree fundamentally with the Deputy in her assessment. The bottom line is that Sinn Féin voted against a reduction in diesel of 20 cent per litre last evening. Sinn Féin voted against a 15 cent reduction in petrol and a 3 cent per litre reduction in green diesel, and also voted against the NORA levy, or will, in terms of its commitment.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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No, they did vote against it last evening. They voted against the reduction.

A Deputy:

We are voting against something we do not even know about.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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If they had won last night, there would be no reductions at all.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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We did win last night.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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That is the logical conclusion of their position. No attempt this morning is going to change that fact. We put forward measures last evening by resolution to reduce the cost of petrol and diesel, and Sinn Féin opposed it and voted against it. That was the wrong thing to do. It sums up their approach. In Northern Ireland, they cannot make up their minds. Two Sinn Féin Ministers are in charge of this area. There is an absolute absence of any decision-making, an absence of any clarity. They cannot make up their minds on how to allocate the money to help people in Northern Ireland. It is pathetic, absolutely pathetic, and they blame somebody else, of course, which they always do.

The bottom line is that there is a war which is having enormous implications for energy supply. It is well documented. No government in the world can compensate every single person in society as a result of that war. All of the advice is that you target the resources you are allocating to a crisis of this kind, and that they are temporary measures. It is also to keep in mind that things could get worse over the next number of months, and that we need to hold in reserve our resources, both for the budget for next year and for making sure we maintain investment in services like education and health, but that we do our best now to ease the pressure on people. Extending the fuel allowance by four weeks enables us to reduce the pressure on working families, and up to 470,000 families will benefit from that extension over four weeks of the fuel allowance. Most people will also benefit from the reduction in diesel and petrol that Sinn Féin voted against and opposed, and people will benefit from the NORA levy also. In the broader area, of course, in the last budget, we increased way above inflation the social protection measures, pensions and the household benefits package - quite substantially.

Deputy McDonald keeps talking about carbon tax. God knows, over the last number of years, it has been incredibly difficult to find out where Sinn Féin stands on carbon tax. Every year, when we do a budget, Sinn Féin does its alternative budget. What is in its alternative budget? All the revenue from carbon tax. So, when it suits Sinn Féin for performative and demonstrative purposes, such as this crisis, it suddenly wheels out its supposed opposition to the carbon tax. However, when it comes to the budget next October, it will have a budget alternative to ours, and it will include carbon tax revenue. It is so hypocritical about it. That is the damage that it would do. Carbon tax is essential to guarantee ring-fenced funding for the retrofitting of homes, the warmer homes initiative and the retrofitting of local authority housing, all of which will help working people to permanently reduce their bills into the future.

This year alone, €173 million will be allocated out of that fund to farmers on environmental farming schemes under the ACRES programme, which is 60% funded by the Government.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Níl an Rialtas ag déanamh faic. Níl sé ag éisteacht ar chor ar bith. We could not be clearer in our position. For the avoidance of any confusion, the Government's half-baked measures are not enough. We will not support measures that leave 750,000 households high and dry. They are real people, real families, who today now worry about how they will pay their home heating bill. The Taoiseach has no answer for them. We had the answer. We provided him with the opportunity to do the right thing, yet he failed to do so.

We see a rerun of the Taoiseach's politics again. For all the auld guff and his performative efforts, he does not care about working people. In the budget he spoke about, he spent €9 billion and not a shilling for working people - not a shilling for the people who do not get the supports he claims. They have been left high and dry.

I put it to the Taoiseach again: we have given him a specific measure in respect of home heating oil that affects hundreds of thousands of households.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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The Taoiseach to respond.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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I ask him again to adopt our proposal.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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You are way over time, Deputy. The Taoiseach to respond.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Adopt the Sinn Féin solution and give these families the relief and support they deserve.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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Sinn Féin's solution is billions, billions and more billions every month of the year. No matter what crisis arises, throw billions at it. That is its response. It has no substance as a party, absolutely none. Whatever issue arises, it just throws money at it. That is the answer to it. That is the incoherence of its response as a party - hopelessly incoherent, no substance to its policy, no clarity. There is an absence of any decision-making capacity, as demonstrated by the Deputy's party in Northern Ireland, and she controls it all. She has made that very clear. That is exactly what happens. She blames somebody else.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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You.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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That is the position of Sinn Féin and has been-----

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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That is absolute waffle.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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What will the Taoiseach do for people on home heating oil?

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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------during the Ukrainian crisis, likewise, where it has a similar destructive approach also.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Why do you not answer the question?

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Deputy, please, have respectful discourse. Appreciate that your time is up.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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I am asking him to answer the question.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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It will be a long time before Deputy Carthy will ever be leader of Sinn Féin and this is not his moment.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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Answer the question.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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Deputy Carthy had his opportunity with his counterpart. We came forward-----

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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With nothing

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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-----with a package last evening which will reduce the cost of petrol and Sinn Féin voted against it.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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The Taoiseach voted against the proposal.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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Sinn Féin voted against the reduction in the price of diesel and petrol, which is quite extraordinary.

Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent)
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God help us if Sinn Féin ever gets the cheque book.

Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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It is not Deputy Grealish's money.

Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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I welcome the northside home care workers in the Public Gallery today. They do incredible work in the local community looking after sick and elderly people and they must be paid a decent and fair wage.

Parents and carers from Before We Die visited the Dáil recently to highlight the housing needs of adults with intellectual disabilities. The name of their campaign group sums up the grim reality of what they are fighting for. They are loving parents who want to be sure their daughters and son will be cared for after they are gone. This should not be too much to ask for in a country where the Government has billions at its disposal. They need more than sympathetic words; they need action to be taken, funding ring-fenced and plans put in place.

These are the words of a parent who contacted Newstalk recently:

We're an elderly couple, both struggling significantly with health issues. We've been told by a very good day service that there are simply no places ... We will, sadly, die sooner rather than later because we get zero respite and never get a chance to recoup our energy. We've been told [our son] could be put anywhere in the country.

This parent is not alone. Parents have no idea what will happen to their son or daughter after they die. They have no plan because there are no options - no gradual transition, no certainty about where they will be housed and nobody left to advocate for their son's or daughter's well-being.

Only after parents die, when there is an emergency situation, will the State finally step in. A vulnerable person is then put up for tender to private contractors. What sort of a care system is this? What sort of a country treats its citizens like this? An bhfuil aon rud á dhéanamh ag an Taoiseach chun é seo a shocrú? What will the Taoiseach do to fix this?

When I raised this with the Tánaiste in February, he admitted there had not been enough progress. "Not enough progress" is a monumental understatement. The disability capacity review in 2021 identified the need for an additional 3,900 residential places just to catch up with pre-recession levels. Four years later, we still have thousands of families where elderly parents are working as full-time carers in their 70s, 80s and even 90s - four years of record budgets and little to show for it. When a parent dies, an adult with an intellectual disability is left stranded. They will lose their mum or dad, their carer, their advocate, their home and their community, all at the same time.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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The Taoiseach to respond.

Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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This is incredibly traumatic and distressing.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Time is up, Deputy. The Taoiseach to respond.

Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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This is cruel. There needs to be ring-fenced funding in next year's budget to build enough new residential places for adults with intellectual disabilities.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Deputy O'Callaghan, your time is up.

Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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Taoiseach, will you commit to doing this?

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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It is unacceptable to be that length over time.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for raising a very important issue. I met with the Before We Die campaign well over a month ago in Cork and listened intently to what they had to say about their personal situations. Their personal situations could be amplified with many more. There are 1,389 active applications for residential services, with 281 assessed as priority 1. We are investing and there are investment plans in the current budget, with an extra 20% to create additional places in new residential developments and so forth. I have put it on the agenda of the next Cabinet subcommittee on disability because it involves more than just the allocation of funding, though we will have to allocate funding.

How this has evolved is unacceptable. The focus is on emergency solutions all the time. Many elderly parents are very distressed and anxious, understandably so, about what will happen to their loved ones if they pass from this life.

There needs to be proper co-ordination between section 39 providers, local authorities, the State, the Government and the Departments of disability and health. The Minister of State, Deputy Higgins, and the HSE met with the group last week. The Minister, Deputy Foley, also met with the group. What is happening at the moment is there is a siloed approach to understanding the overall housing needs of adults with intellectual disability. It is not just about what we might traditionally call residential places; there must be a much more holistic approach. In some instances, people are being sent to local authorities to apply for housing in the ordinary way. That is not good enough.

With any application for housing from someone with an intellectual disability, there is a continuum. Some will need some levels of support and others will need greater levels of support. It cannot be a siloed approach saying it is a local authority problem or challenge. It is not. It has to be one where the care aspects are integrated with the housing solution. That is where I want to take this. It will take a bit of reorganisation in terms of how Government operates, as well as local government, section 39 providers and everybody involved here. The priority has to be on those waiting. Over the last number of years, there has been a huge investment in decongregation, which has taken up lot of resources. We need to work through the prioritisation of those in need.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Thank you, Taoiseach. You will come back in. I call Deputy O'Callaghan.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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In my view, those most in need are those without housing and whose parents are getting older.

Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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I welcome the fact the Taoiseach recognises this needs to be addressed. Losing your mum or dad, your carer, your advocate, your home and your community at the same time is incredibly traumatic.

For people then potentially to be offered a place hundreds of miles away from where they have lived all their life and everything they have ever known is deeply inhumane. That cannot continue and the Taoiseach must act on it. Will he commit sufficient funding that is ring-fenced to address this? I welcome the other approaches that are being taken but funding must be ring-fenced to address this issue. Will he commit to that?

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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Certainly, as I said, this is an issue I am going to deal with personally, as Taoiseach, with the Minister, Deputy Foley, the Minister of State, Deputy Higgins, and others, including the Minister for Health. It needs an integrated response, without question. We certainly will provide the necessary funding but, again, we have to get the design and the structures right. In my view, there is funding available within housing in a lot of instances but it cannot be that we just pass it over to the local authority to deal with. It is not a sustainable or proper response to say it is somebody else's problem.

There have been capacity issues within section 39 bodies in terms of dealing with this housing and residential issue. We need to engage with the different authorities and bodies responsible and get moving on it. We must engage proactively with local authorities to say we want particular cases dealt with and particular priorities set. That needs to be done in a proactive way as opposed to dealing with an issue when it becomes an emergency.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Thank you, Taoiseach. Further engagement is certainly required.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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The HSE has to be involved in that process as well.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
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The ambulance service is absolutely essential. Paramedics are the first on the scene and they do incredible work, as I know from my own personal experience. However, this week, we have seen further reports of a misogynistic and toxic culture in the National Ambulance Service, NAS. Will the Taoiseach investigate this issue?

I have spoken to Kathy - that is not her real name - who has reported a paramedic who drugged, sexually assaulted, coercively controlled and raped her on multiple occasions. He apparently stole controlled drugs, namely, midazolam, which is a strong sedative, and Penthrox, a powerful painkiller, which he used against her. Despite the NAS being fully aware for over a year of a rape investigation into this man, he was recently promoted into a senior position in the service. For years, this predator has sexually harassed without consequence. At least five women suffered misconduct from him, including one he locked in a shed. Four women contacted their line managers but their complaints were not progressed.

Kathy could have been spared the horrific ordeal she has endured over a period of time at the hands of this person had the complaints procedures and sexual harassment policies in the National Ambulance Service worked. It seems a bit like what happened in the church, with offenders being moved from base to base after complaints. Paramedics are the first to the scene of emergencies. They may be on their own with very vulnerable people for a long time. A sexual predator with authority and access to drugs is a very dangerous mix. Will the Taoiseach investigate why the HSE has promoted this man and why the procedures are failing?

In July 2025, The Journal Investigates did a survey on this issue. It found that in the past five years, 85 complaints were raised with NAS management about bullying and sexual harassment. Only ten of those complaints made it to disciplinary level. In 2020 alone, there were 20 complaints. The National Ambulance Service Representative Association, NASRA, has called for an independent inquiry into the service and into these issues. In a survey of NAS staff in the north east in May 2025, 56 out of 65 women responded. One in two had experienced sexual harassment, comments or unwanted touching by ambulance personnel. One told of how a paramedic made the comment, "If you need a hand with the breastfeeding, let me know". Others experienced unwanted physical contact. One woman, Hope, who has ten years' experience in the service, was dry-humped by a male colleague. No woman should have to put up with this in the workplace and, in addition, this behaviour is a danger to the general public. Why is it being allowed? Will the Government set up an independent investigation into the ambulance service?

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this very serious issue in the House. I do not have the full background to the case to hand. I have read some reports in the media in respect of it. Clearly, I do not want to prejudice anything that may be in train but it is very difficult to comprehend how somebody against whom these complaints and charges have been made could be promoted. I do not have the full background to the case but it is extremely difficult to comprehend.

No woman should have to suffer such harassment or suffer, as in this case, sedation and rape. The Deputy is correct that there absolutely should be a zero-tolerance approach within the ambulance service to misogyny, sexual harassment and the undermining of women in any shape or form in their daily work. I will ask the Minister for Health to apprise me of the background to this case and also, if necessary, to initiate a review into it. Without having the specific details of, or background to, the case, one would expect there to be norms and protocols within an organisation like the National Ambulance Service whereby when allegations of such a severe nature are made, certain actions would automatically follow.

These matters are being investigated. It would seem to be highly unusual in the public service that someone would be promoted while such substantive and serious allegations remain to be investigated. Given the gravity of what has been alleged and that it seems, from what the Deputy has said, that others have also suffered at the hands of this individual, promoting a person in that context would, in my view, represent an outlier in terms of how the public service more generally deals with situations like this when they arise. I will ask the Minister to get back to me and to the Deputy in respect of this issue.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
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To be clear, I highlighted a particular case but this is not about one case, as shown by the statistics I gave, the survey that was done in the north east and The Journal Investigates findings. This has been going on for more than a year. It is time for the Minister for Health to intervene. An Garda Síochána, the health service and the Army should not be safe havens for perpetrators. Unfortunately, the policies that are designed to deal with complaints of sexual harassment and violence are failing utterly to do so. Neither internal procedures nor the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, are really holding perpetrators to account. In fact, the complainants, who often are women, are the people who end up suffering in their career, in their education, as we saw with the case in UCD, or in terms of their health. In the Private Members' debate earlier, I referred to a case where a garda made a complaint of sexual harassment against a colleague. The sergeant is working away and she is off sick.

We need intervention in relation to sexual harassment. It should be a criminal offence, not just something that is dealt with through the Employment Appeals Tribunal. We need action now.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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Fundamentally, in any organisation, it is about the culture. In all of the work that has been done within the Defence Forces, the one word that kept emerging in terms of all the analysis, inquiries and so on was "culture". There are numerous policies in respect of these issues but the biggest difficulty and challenge is around culture. Changes are occurring in the Defence Forces, which should be acknowledged given what has happened, and also within An Garda Síochána. Interestingly, there was a lot of resistance from those organisations to utilisation of the word "culture" and to highlighting the fact there is a problem with the culture. There was a lot of resistance at times to even articulating that in any documents pertaining to the Defence Forces. That has been my experience. To me, however, culture is the fundamental issue that underpins behaviour like this occurring on a regular basis.

It is something that has to be worked on on a consistent, constant basis to change the culture of organisations. I will revert to the Deputy.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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The price of home heating oil has shot up by 85% in recent weeks. Last month, the price of 1,000 litres of home heating oil was about €950. This week is retailing for €1,750. This country saw the biggest increase in home heating oil in the whole of the EU. Very few families have the colour of €1,750 lying around the house. Hard-working families, nurses, teachers, gardaí and small business owners simply do not have that money available at any one time. One nurse contacted my office and said she has not been able to refuel her home because of the price of it and her family is simply going to bed early to keep warm at night-time. She said that the family do not smoke or drink. They do not go out and do not get takeaways. She said she is embarrassed because she cannot afford the basic necessities for her children at the moment.

She is not alone. At the moment about 2 million people across the country are dependent on home heating oil. In the likes of counties Donegal, Sligo and Leitrim, there is no connection at all to the national gas grid and as a result, many of these homes are locked into that fuel source. What did the Government do for these families? It took 2 cent off a litre of home heating oil. In the jaws of an energy crisis when home heating oil has increased to record levels, the Government’s amazing solution to this has been to drop the price of a litre of home heating oil by 2 cent. A fill has gone from €1,750 to €1,730. It is an atrocious insult to hard-working families in this country. It is an absolute disgrace but it is not the full picture either here because in a few weeks, the Government plans to raise the price of a litre of home heating oil by 2 cent. In the teeth of this hardship on families, the net results of its tax actions in a month will be to marginally increase the tax on home heating oil in this country.

Families are crushed by this energy crisis. Small businesses are going to the wall. Carers cannot afford to drive to mind the people they care for. Workers cannot fill their tanks to get to work. Farmers are actually seeing their costs spike while the price of their produce is falling, and the Government’s policy is to increase the net tax on home heating oil. The heart of the problem here is that the Government’s plan is to increase taxes on fuel. For sure, the war in Iran has accelerated hardship on families but the Government was taking 65% in tax on a litre of petrol and diesel before the war. Some 320,000 families were in energy arrears before the war. The price of electricity in this country was at the highest in Europe before the war. The painful reality is the Government is tax gouging families. The question I have for the Taoiseach is: will the Government cut carbon tax on home heating oil?

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy’s assessment is not correct in the sense that he ignored the extension of the fuel allowance for four weeks, which will help about 470,000 people to deal with the rise in the price of home heating oil. There is no doubt that there is huge pressure on families and people across the country. The price of home heating oil has increased very significantly because of the war, not because of what the Government did. The price shock that is occurring because of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz as well as the bombing of gas and oil installations in Iran and in the Gulf states. That is the fundamental cause of the current crisis. It still has not reached the levels that we reached at the time of the Russian invasion of Ukraine when we also had an oil price and energy crisis.

Government has to act. This is March and we have another winter to come. We do not quite know what is around the corner and what measures might be required from Government in response to potentially a further deterioration in the future. Hopefully this war ends very quickly; it should end very quickly. That is what we want but we do not know what might happen in respect of that. We also have to prepare for a budget and keep our resources in reserve.

I know the Deputy is against the carbon tax; I think he would abolish it in total.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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When prices are surging it is not-----

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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Yes, he would. Honesty is what we want here because the Government would then need to find €1 billion to do what the Deputy wants us to do. That means taking money from farmers. It means taking money from the retrofitting programme because we would not be able to do the retrofitting programme without it. The retrofitting programme helps people to reduce their costs over time and is a far more effective energy-efficient approach to the allocation of resources. About €173 million this year will come from that fund and go to farmers across the country. The Opposition will say, “Don’t do that. Find the money elsewhere.” We also have to try to invest in education, health, children and disability for the next budget. We want to maintain existing levels of public service but also increase them. This morning, we announced the DEIS plus scheme, which allocated further resources to the schools most in need and with huge challenges. It affects about 120 schools and also provides more home-school liaison. We want to make a reserve to make sure we improve services for everybody in the country.

Yesterday’s allocation of about €250 million is probably the largest package across Europe. The fuel allowance is a good, targeted measure that helps about 470,000 families, which will help them with their home heating oil expenses. The general reduction in petrol and diesel prices will definitely help families across the length and breadth of the country. We also have the reduction in the NORA levy. The Deputy cannot just isolate one from the other; they will all help to some degree.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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First, working families do not get the fuel allowance. The working families that I am talking about who are in energy crisis at the moment are suffering significantly from this. Second, the war in Iran is a shocking situation, which has had an enormous effect on the price of fuel but Government taxes have a larger effect on the price of fuel. The majority of the price of diesel, 65%, comes from taxes at the moment. The Taoiseach spoke about the Government’s €250 million package. He should look at it like this. The Government has actually taken in about €140 million in extra taxes because of VAT going up on the higher prices in the past four weeks. Carbon taxes will take in an extra €160 million over the rest of the year. When the two are put together, the Government’s package is smaller than the extra taxes it will take this year. That is an incredible situation. It does not need the carbon taxes at the moment to retrofit. It squirrelled away €10 billion in windfall taxes last year. The Government could use some of that money to invest in retrofitting homes to bring down the cost of deep retrofitting from €40,000 to a lower amount so that people could actually afford it.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy is wrong in his assessment of the Government’s increase in revenue.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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It is €40 million a week.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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That is absolutely wrong. The Deputy is raising the general issue of taxation overall. He cannot have both ways. What he is really advocating for is a cut in public services.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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No.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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Of course he is because if you reduce taxes on one front, you are reducing your revenue and resources to pay for public services in education, health-----

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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Fuel taxes are not progressive and hurt low-income families most.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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The Taoiseach, without interruption.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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However, they are a revenue source. The Deputy would either increase income tax or increase taxes elsewhere – he should tell us what he would do - to offset-----

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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Progressive taxes.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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------the significant reduction in excise duty that he is proposing because he would have to find the money from somewhere. We cannot have everything we want. We cannot have our cake and eat it, which seems to be the Deputy’s response. The Government is targeting its resources and 50,000 extra families on the working family payment are in receipt of the fuel allowance. We introduced that in the latest budget and they will gain from the extension of the fuel allowance. He is wrong in saying that working families will not benefit from that.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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The Taoiseach knows that most working families are not in receipt of that.