Independent Ireland always welcomed any fuel cuts that were made but, in fairness, they never went to the core of the problem. I know, following the protest, the Government was kicking and screaming against giving anything to the people. The people almost had a revolution in the country before it woke up and then when it woke up, it did not go about it in the right way. The right way is always at the pump. If money is taken off at the pump, it goes back into the wallet or purse of the mother or father who is out there working and struggling greatly at this time. However, the Government did not do that; instead it did through the tax system and this, that and the other thing. I met a farmer the other day who said to me that it all he got was three or four cent per litre. That is what it all boiled down to because by the time people have their accountants and others sorted out, they are not going to get anything. That is a terribly unfair way to deal with people. It is a kind of back door system of getting the money back - pushing it out one door and in the other. This all hurts. It hurts the farmer on the ground. If he does not have some kind of relief, he has to pass that on to the person who is buying the produce in the shop, whether it is eggs, beef, potatoes or vegetables. That is all going to be passed on and people are feeling the hurt of this. The increases in the cost of butter and other foods are extraordinary and people are finding it very hard at this present time. In a crisis, Government is meant to be there to stand with the people. It failed to do that. Independent Ireland did and we got a lot of criticism from the Government. We know why; because we showed the Government up. We stood there on the side of the road. We tried to create peace and bring in an environment where the Government and the protesters could talk. That was refused. We thought we could reconvene the Dáil so if the Government could not talk to the protesters, it could talk to us but it did not want to do that. We tried different mechanisms to put forward solutions and the people appreciated that. They knew there was some voice there. This was a voice for the people who were going out of business who are the men and the women who have built this country. The one thing that taught me a lesson was that hard-working people who are working day and night said there was no voice for them. Everything is up on their backs and the Government believes, "We will shove it up again". Forget what the Government is doing. We have the Social Democrats and the Labour Party in here telling the Government that it needs to reduce the cost of fuel but they never shut up about carbon tax. Where do they think the money is going to come from? It is the same people. They have no understanding of how people are suffering because if they did, they would ask for a freeze on carbon taxes until the crisis is over and let us have a look at these things after it. They should not come into the Dáil saying, "I should do this", but then shove up the carbon tax anyway because that does not matter, it is a great idea. It is not a great idea. It is an extra infliction on people at a difficult time. The one little bit of comfort that people have in their own homes is home heating oil. That never really reduced in price. People have been telling me that up until last weekend the heating was still on in their homes because they have no choice. Nobody wants to have it on but the Minister of State knows the weather we have. There are cold, bitter evenings and a lot of people have to turn on the home heating oil. My God, did they get any break? They got no break. These are hard-working people or maybe retired people who have given to the State long enough and they get little or no respect. Fishermen find themselves in the same situation regarding the rebates for fuel. They have huge fuel issues, whether it is the petrol for the inshore fishermen or the pelagic fleet. They have huge bills to pay and it was not long ago that Europe was willing to give some bit of a rebate to the Irish fishermen but the previous Government would not dare apply for it in case it gave some bit of relief to the people who work hard. We seem to have a problem in this country. We bleed the man and the woman who works to death and do not support them or try and bring them through a situation where it is a known crisis throughout the world for other governments. There are over 300,000 people in arrears with their electricity bills, and that is a very serious issue. The Government helped them before by giving them a break but it will not even consider that now. The Government is always on about renewables. Everybody is shouting about them. People want to change; there is no point in saying they should not. They would, of course. It is only a fool that would not. I refer to putting solar panels on their houses but there is only a grant of €1,800 - a measly, dirty little grant when all the rest of Europe is giving €7,000 or €8,000 for putting the same amount of solar panels on their roofs. The Government is way behind the times. It has the National Oil Reserves Agency fuel costs and a budget left that it never spent. The Government is not in the real world and it needs to catch up.

Sentiment score: -0.10