Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Please do. It is all right - my mother is from Kerry.

I wish to commend the organisers of the conference on valproate and its legacy which was held in Trinity College Dublin last Friday and which I attended. In particular, I commend the Organisation for Anti-Convulsant Syndrome, OACS, Ireland, its chairperson, Ms Karen Keely, and Epilepsy Ireland for the work they put into the conference. I thank all of the international speakers who had an input into the conference. In stark contrast, there were no Government speakers in attendance, which is absolutely atrocious when one considers the seriousness of this issue which affects at least 1,200 people. Children and young people have been left with disabilities because their mothers were prescribed valproate while pregnant. I repeat my request for the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, to come to the House for a full discussion of the issue of sodium valproate and the need for a proper, judge-led public inquiry into who knew what about this issue and when they knew it.

I also wish to raise the issue of the looming prospect of carbon taxes. The Taoiseach all but confirmed the Government's plans to pass on huge costs to working families rather than target the major polluting corporations. Carbon taxes currently add approximately €2 to the cost of a bag of coal, 50 cent to a bale of briquettes and 5 cent to a litre of diesel. Fine Gael, backed by Fianna Fáil, plans to massively increase carbon taxes over the next few years, which will lead to ordinary families paying an extra €1,000 a year. Under the plans, the carbon tax will add €10.50 to the cost of a bag of coal, €2.25 to a bale of briquettes and 26.5 cent to a litre of diesel.

My colleague, Deputy Pearse Doherty, tabled a parliamentary question on this issue. The reply to that question, which he received yesterday, confirmed that VAT will apply to any increase in the cost of fuel caused by the carbon tax. There will be a tax on a tax. This sums up the priorities of Fine Gael. Instead of taxing those who pollute and are responsible for Ireland missing its climate change targets, it would rather punish the ordinary people. It will tax ordinary folk twice rather than dare to tax big corporations once. At the Fine Gael conference at the weekend, the Taoiseach provided no clarity on whether it will be the major polluters or struggling families who will foot the bill. I call for a debate on the carbon tax proposals such that hard-working individuals and families who are already hammered by massive insurance premiums and sky-high rents can learn if they will once again take the hit because Fine Gael certainly will not hit the big corporations.

The carbon tax plans will particularly affect rural Ireland, where much of the housing stock is not insulated and public transport systems are not in place to provide an alternative to buying diesel. This is another issue that will significantly affect ordinary people. Many such people will also be affected by their mortgages being sold off to vulture funds. They cannot understand how a vulture fund can buy a property for €100,000, sell it on for €300,000 and pay no tax on that, whereas if they were to do so they would have to pay a third of the profits in tax. It is not right. The way the Government is treating ordinary people in this country is not right.