The Bill the Minister of State has brought before the House in many ways represents everything that has been so wrong with the Government's approach to the fuel price crisis and to the broader cost-of-living crisis. Everything is too little, too late. It took far too long for the Government to listen and to accept and realise that ordinary workers, families, farmers, small businesses, coach drivers and hauliers had their backs to the wall and that people needed a bit of support and relief. The Government had to be dragged kicking and screaming to take any type of action at all. Of course when it did act, in typical Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael style it did far too little. What the Government did was insufficient. Then, when it introduced schemes in respect of contractors, it took far too long to bring clarity to how some of those measures would actually work. We have found out virtually every week since that there is another cohort in the business sector that was hopeful it would benefit from the rebate but which, it transpires, gets no benefit at all. It was for all of those reasons, and because of the failure to provide adequately or within an adequate timeframe, that Sinn Féin opposed the financial resolutions brought forward by the Government. All of this is a choice. We have had the choices of the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael parties and Independent TDs. What were those choices? To this day, there has not been a single cent of a reduction in the price of home heating oil, despite the fact that there are TDs across the Government benches who, I have no doubt, are aware of people in their constituencies who have had empty tanks for months because they cannot afford to put oil in them. They are going cold because the Government refuses to provide them with any support whatsoever or take any meaningful measures. The average cost of diesel at one point in May, before the measures took effect, stood at €1.97. Today, the average cost of diesel is €1.88 a litre. It might be the Government's policy to have petrol and diesel at those prices on an ongoing basis, but they are too expensive for people who have no option but to use their cars to get to work. Green diesel costs nearly 50% more. The most bizarre aspect of the financial resolutions that have come before the House is the Government's commitment to increase the carbon tax every single year until 2030, despite the irrefutable evidence that carbon taxes hit lower income people and people from rural communities hardest. Carbon taxes charge people for not changing to something that does not exist. The people I and the Minister of State represent cannot afford a new car costing €50,000, whether they have an €8,000 grant or not. They rely on their petrol or diesel car to do everything, from driving to work to driving their kids to school in some instances or to activities they are involved in, yet the Government's choice, time and again, has been to kick them in the teeth rather than give them the support they need.

Sentiment score: 0.07