I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for sharing his time with me. As this is my first opportunity to give a speech, I will thank all members of the public in Galway West who voted for me and gave me the distinct honour of coming back to this House for a second chance to represent the people of Galway West. I thank everybody who voted for me in that election, whether they gave me their number one or a transfer. I acknowledge all of the other candidates who stood in the by-election. It was a clean and competitive election. I thank the director of elections, the Minister, Deputy Peter Burke; our party leader, Deputy Simon Harris; all of my colleagues in the parliamentary party, particularly Seanad colleagues; MEPs; city and county councillors in Galway; others who came to assist; and party members. As I said, it is a distinct honour to have been successful in that by-election. I will not take it for granted. I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Troy. I acknowledge this Bill, the necessity for it and the reason behind it, which is the conflict in the Middle East and the resulting increases in fuel costs at our petrol pumps around the country. I also acknowledge the very valid cost-of-living concerns this has caused for members of the public. I welcome the postponement of the carbon tax increase until budget day. We will have a look at it at that stage. As I said in many of the election debates, we do not know what the world will be like in October. None of us has a crystal ball. We do not know how much longer this conflict will continue. It is important that we are in a position to review matters as things develop and to have the foresight to look to the future. We have to acknowledge that because of the management of the economy and the hard work of people across the country we have reserves for the forthcoming budget. When talking about the carbon tax, it is important to note the moneys that derive from that tax go into very important areas of our economy, including ACRES for farmers, fuel allowance for those in need and home retrofit schemes. While no tax is popular, it is important to acknowledge where carbon tax revenues go, although we also need to keep these things under review in the future. I will talk about another area I talked about during the campaign - home heating oil. Home heating oil is obviously not subject to excise duty but it still represents a significant cost. We have seen a significant increase for those who are reliant on home heating oil or kerosene across our country. We are closer to the next budget than we are to the last and it is important in that budget we ensure that if this conflict is still with us and if prices are still high, there is some rebate or other mechanism to assist those who are reliant on home heating oil or kerosene. It is absolutely vital that they are looked after. Again, this is not something new that I am saying. I have been saying this over the last number of weeks. We have seen home heating oil prices effectively double over the course of a number of weeks during this conflict. I also acknowledge the substantial package the Government put in place both because it was done and because it was needed. It was absolutely vital to provide that support to those across the country who were impacted by the rise in prices at our petrol pumps arising from the conflict in the Middle East. It was important for Government to respond. As I said, it did so because it was necessary and because it had the resources to do so thanks to the management of the economy.

Sentiment score: 0.29