Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. Like many others, I welcome the Government intervention in assisting people with the significant cost-of-living increase, particularly concentrated in the energy sector. The €200 benefit payment and €125 lump sum payment on the fuel allowance will not solve all the losses people for sure, particularly those on low pay and in receipt of social welfare, will have suffered as a result of this. I need to speak out against the people who say it will make no difference. For those people I deal with who are living on the edge, €325 will mean an awful lot to them. Those who would cast it aside and say it means nothing are people who are reasonably wealthy and are making a judgment. The fact of the matter is that this intervention is significant and it will help. It does not go all the way and, like Senator Boyhan and others, I would have liked a more targeted approach taken. I would like to have seen a greater quantum of money given to people on lower incomes but I recognise that if we are to act quickly and try to address the problem, developing a means-tested targeted approach would disenfranchise people in the short to medium term and it would take too long. It is always the case that wherever a threshold is set, there is a hardship case on the other side of that. This is an appropriate response. In an ideal world we would be able to do it differently. Sadly, we do not live in an ideal world.

In parallel, we need to increase our ambition for the retrofitting programme and the development of renewable energy sources, and the Minister is addressing that. That is the future. That is the best way we will address price certainty and energy security into the future. We see what is paying out on the Russian-Ukraine border. Obviously, that is creating international uncertainty. It is allowing for gain for those who buy and sell the litre of oil a multiplicity of times before it ever gets to be utilised here at the end of a very long journey. We have access to that area.The Minister and I have had numerous conversations about our ambition regarding floating offshore wind turbines and a corresponding hydrogen strategy. I just hope that the Government, over the coming years, will be able to advance these ahead of the ESB's ambition, which involves a timeline of eight to ten years. We have got to realise our ambitions much more quickly.

At best, we hope that the very significant increase in oil and gas prices will be somewhat temporary. Depending on who you listen to or read, the instability could be for the next 12 to 18 months, but it could be for longer. The Government will have to intervene if it goes, or is likely to go, beyond that. With the cost of diesel having risen by 35 cent to 40 cent in a relatively short period, people will just not be able to manage economically or take on the intolerable burden.

People have bought into the carbon tax. I agree with my colleague in this regard. The vast majority of people I know recognise there had to be a signal to the marketplace, investors and the fuel sector that fossil fuels would cost more in the future. We agreed on this at the committee meeting, with the exception of one party and a number of Independents, whom I accept disagreed for their own reasons. The reality, however, is that we had shown the trajectory and people had bought into it. It pales into insignificance, however, when you consider the uncertainty the market has foisted on us.

We have to move towards more active travel. We are getting there through our investment, but if the massive spike in the cost of diesel and petrol is to continue beyond a year or year and a half, the Government will have to do something to moderate it. There are rebate systems. There would be a very significant impact on the agricultural community, which we are trying to bring with us on this green journey. From discussions the Minister had with some farmers in Clare last Friday, he will know they are up for that. Not all of them are, but the majority are. Increases will have an impact on the cost of goods and an effect on the supply chain. Therefore, while I understand where the Government is at the minute, I am firmly of the view that if a price spike becomes a plateau, there will have to be a significant intervention. I hope that can take place.