The Minister of State wandered in here with a script and banged on about established facts and realities. The fact and reality are that if anything Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael had done over the last number of years worked, we would not be standing here. Motorists would not be carrying this disproportionate level of financial burden. Government Members act as commentators while the cost of relying on a car soars. They may try to wash their hands of this but it is simply untrue to put the myth out there that there is nothing they can do. Like so many of Fianna Fáil's and Fine Gael's policies, they are fuelling the cost-of-living crisis because there are solutions at their fingertips, but they are choosing to ignore them. At a time when Irish motorists pay the third-highest fuel prices in the EU, the Government increased the carbon tax again, increasing the cost of a tank of fuel. Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael policy is actively driving up the cost of putting petrol or diesel into a car. The average motor insurance policy rose 9% last year, almost double the European average. As for motor tax, those with the means actually pay less than those who cannot afford the lump sum payment; those who have no choice but to pay in instalments. You literally could not make this up. These are ordinary people trying to get to work, get their kids to school and do the weekly shop and they are being punished by what the Minister of State - I stand to be corrected on this - said is to the tune of €35 million. That is absolutely scandalous. Now, the latest insult is another toll bridge and toll road increase. The toll bridge where I am on the M4 has people absolutely livid because not only are the tolls going up, but there is not a staff member to be found for dust since Covid. These costs disproportionately hit people living in rural Ireland, and due to the Government's policies and the successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael failures to build sustainable public transport options, people in parts of my constituency of Longford-Westmeath have no choice but to use their car because there is literally no alternative. This evening, the Government has a choice. It can stop the proposed toll increases, end the motor tax financial penalty and support this motion and end the rip-off.

Sentiment score: -0.17