231. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance if he is aware of the issue around accessing and cash flow in relation to the diesel rebate scheme; if consideration has been given to providing the benefit of the diesel rebate scheme as a direct cut on excise on diesel at the pumps; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26925/26]
Sentiment score: 0.08
Obviously, the priority questions were submitted before the announcements last week, which the Government was forced to make by people pressure and by parties in opposition like Sinn Féin, but we know that half measures do not cut it. Still we see so many people, particularly hauliers, who are locked out of the rebate scheme. There are reasons for this, such as if they are transporting livestock, their own product or if they do not have a haulage licence. There is a serious issue with cash flow. I have argued time and again with the Taoiseach that the direct reduction needs to be given at the fuel pumps. That would benefit not only hauliers but also everybody else who relies on petrol and diesel and who are paying extortionate prices during this time of crisis. Will the Tánaiste finally listen, see sense and actually cut fuel prices to affordable levels at the pumps?
Sentiment score: -0.16
The Tánaiste is missing the point here.
Sentiment score: -0.30
I do not know if he is doing it deliberately or not. If you cut excise duty directly at the pump, it benefits the hauliers, transport operators and bus companies that need that measure for cash flow, but it also benefits everybody else. It benefits carers, nurses, doctors, teachers, street cleaners and everybody else in society. That is what should be happening here. That is the best way to cut costs for the hauliers, who would then not have to wait three months and deal with more paperwork and red tape as they fill in applications to the rebate scheme. What people are demanding and took to the streets for, although the Tánaiste refused to listen to them, is a cut to excise duty at the pumps. They wanted costs driven down. There is still capacity to do some of that because we are still not at the minimum levels of excise duty on petrol and diesel. A carer who rocks up to the petrol station tomorrow will pay €2.07 per litre. He or she is paying more excise duty on that litre of diesel than is required under EU law. That is a fact and that is wrong. It is wrong at a time of huge surpluses in this State and when the Government now has €4.1 billion extra that it did not expect to have. People are really suffering but the Government is still refusing to listen, refusing to understand and, what is worse, refusing to act appropriately.
Sentiment score: -0.07
Does the Minister accept that the nurse pulling up to a petrol station, putting diesel into her car and paying €2.07 per litre, the price I was seeing last night, is paying more excise duty on that fuel than is required under EU law? It is a simple question.
Sentiment score: 0.19
I am asking about diesel. Under European law, the minimum excise duty to be imposed on her diesel is €330 per 1,000 litres. She is paying more than that. That is the reality. The issue here is that the resources are in the State. The Minister knows that. The money is there. The money is there to help people. It is there to help hauliers, nurses and gardaí. It is there to help the people but the Minister is refusing to do that. His head has been seriously stuck in the sand for the past two weeks. People power had to be employed in ways it had never been before to get Deputies Simon Harris and Micheál Martin to wake up and listen. These half jobs are not good enough. Some €2.07 is far too high when it comes on top of everything else, including all of the pressures and the withdrawal of various supports from families last October. That is what the Minister is missing and what he is failing to understand. This question was very simple. The Minister can do this in a different way, which would benefit everybody but he does not want to do it because he is penny-pinching.
Sentiment score: -0.04
I was disappointed when you threatened them with the Army.
Sentiment score: -0.73
233. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance if he will consider the maximum removal of excise duty, both carbon and non-carbon, from green diesel, given the vital role of green diesel in primary production like farming and other sectors such as construction; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26926/26]
Sentiment score: 0.20
The Minister steadfastly refused to cut excise duty on green diesel, despite all of the evidence and the knowledge that farmers are under serious pressure. The reason is that the excise duty on green diesel is carbon tax. It is the carbon component. Does the Tánaiste know something? A farmer does not care what it is called. He does not care whether it is excise, carbon or whatever else. He just knows that the price has gone from 97 cent a litre up to €1.80 and, as Minister for Finance, the Tánaiste is refusing to cut it at the pumps. He has the ability today to still support farmers in a way that really matters, right here, right at the pumps, by actually removing carbon tax from green diesel. Why will he not do it?
Sentiment score: -0.16
It would cost €14 million a month to actually remove carbon tax from green diesel, the cost of which has gone through the roof for farmers. Talk to agricultural contractors and talk to ordinary farmers. Talk to the farmers who are telling me that this scheme, which we have not seen as the applications are not even open yet because this a Government that dithers, delays and only acts when it is pushed into things, is going to create more paperwork. What the Government will not listen to is that it has the ability to reduce the excise duty on green diesel at the pump for the farmer right now. It would cost €14 million a month in the context of a surplus of over €9 billion, money we are going to take in this year, and we are not going to spend. The Tánaiste should not give me his guff about this breaking the economy. Supporting farmers is the right thing to do. It will not break the economy. Supporting farmers is what any responsible Government should be doing. The ability is here to support people in terms of the scale of this crisis but the Government is refusing to do it, and the reason it is refusing to do it is for the simple reason it is called carbon tax. Is that not the truth?
Sentiment score: 0.06
The people backed me and-----
Sentiment score: 0.03
Talk to the people and the Tánaiste will get that message very clearly.
Sentiment score: 0.46
You are living in this bubble too long, Simon. Go and talk to ordinary people.
Sentiment score: 0.00
For the past two elections, we have had more seats that Fine Gael.
Sentiment score: 0.26
The Minister needs to get his head out of the clouds and sand and talk to ordinary people. He can pontificate all he wants, point fingers at me and say I am isolated and people do not back me in here. I do not give a damn because I know that I am on the side of ordinary Irish people. I know that people are being pushed to the pin of their collar. I have met them on the streets and in homes across the State over the past number of weeks. I know they need action and leadership and they are not getting it from the Minister. That is what I am doing here. I am giving them a voice and I do not care who else is on my side because I know the side I am on. The Minister is on the wrong side. The question people will ask me after this exchange will be how the fella across from me justifies €9 billion of a surplus. Last night I spoke to an elderly person in Galway who has no fuel in her tank to heat her home. Carers told me the old woman apologised to them because the house was so cold. At a time the Exchequer's coffers are bursting, people are going cold. That is not a republic that is worthy of the name. The Minister has the opportunity to change that and make a real difference for people, but he refuses to do so because he is too long in this bubble and is out of touch with ordinary people.
Sentiment score: 0.00
I am not asking the Minister. He should not be stupid. He should not be silly.
Sentiment score: 0.13
234. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance if he will consider the maximum removal of mineral oil tax on home heating oil given the substantial price increases; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26927/26]
Sentiment score: 0.08
I am sure the Minister will not listen to this either.
Sentiment score: 0.32
He always listens. The last time the Minister listened the Government was trying to turn the Army on our own people. That is the listening. That is the reaction we got from Government.
Sentiment score: 0.00
Let me just say this here-----
Sentiment score: 0.00
Some 750,000 households across the State rely on home heating oil to heat their homes. Last night, at a public meeting attended by hundreds in Galway to discuss the cost-of-living crisis, I spoke to a carer who went into a home of an elderly woman. She worked all her life, paid her taxes and did everything right and apologised for the house being so cold because the heating had run out. The Minister refuses to cut excise duty on home heating oil to support household like hers, along with 750,000 other households. We have record surpluses of over €9 billion, yet the Government refuses to introduce a measure that would cost €14 million per month. Why is the Minister so out of touch? Why is he acting so Scrooge-like when he knows people are cold in their homes today because they cannot afford to heat them.
Sentiment score: -0.01
I do not want it suspended; I want it cancelled.
Sentiment score: 0.03
This is the problem. The Minister does not understand the scale of the crisis or the lived experience of many people across the State. Before we had a fuel crisis, 320,000 families could not pay their electricity bills. Families were pushed to the pin of the collar because of increases in grocery prices, rents and insurance and childcare costs that were like a second mortgage. A generation felt home ownership was outside of the reach because of Government policies. The fuel crisis, brought on by external factors, has tipped people over the edge. People expect the Government to respond. I spoke to the Minister about an old woman to wear an extra jacket because she has no heating in her home. This is not an isolated incident. A young woman wrote to me to tell me she had no home heating oil for two weeks because she could not afford it on top of medical and childcare expenses. She wrote to me on the day the Government announced its latest package of half measures. She said for the first time in a long time she felt a sense of hope, like maybe the pressure might ease even slightly, but by the time she finished work and saw the news, that small glimmer of light was gone again. She said it is hard to describe how it feels. The Minister sits there and pats himself on the back. He said our budget surpluses have doubled. We have €4 billion extra that we never thought we would have, but an elderly woman has to put on a jacket because our house is cold and a woman who is married to a fella who works every hour that God sends cannot afford heat in her home. There is something seriously wrong in this republic when people are left like that.
Sentiment score: -0.09
The Tánaiste's mantra again speaks to me of the fact that he does not understand where people are at. Does the Tánaiste think the woman who wrote to me does not know what she is earning? Of course she knows what she is earning but she also knows that the cost of electricity has gone through the roof. She also knows that the weekly shop is a lot more expensive than it was last week, that the cost of childcare is another mortgage and that rents are increasing. Now she also knows that her house is cold for two weeks because she cannot afford to heat her home. I am not asking the Tánaiste to spend all of the €9.1 billion surplus. Rather, I am asking him to do what a responsible Minister for Finance would do when he or she sees that citizens are suffering and in crisis - to show leadership and act to support them. The Tánaiste can do that. He can cut excise duty on home heating oil today. It would cost €14 million - not billion – per month. The Tánaiste refuses to do it, however. It would make a real difference to her and so many others like her but the Tánaiste refuses to do it. He is seriously out of touch with where public opinion is at on this.
Sentiment score: -0.06
What is she supposed to do? Should she wear another jacket or tighten her belt? What advice do you have? Should she put on another coat?
Sentiment score: 0.00
That is nonsense.
Sentiment score: -0.40
Are you saying they are just stupid and not managing their budgets? What are you saying?
Sentiment score: -0.26
They cannot afford their heat.
Sentiment score: 0.00
They cannot afford their heat.
Sentiment score: 0.00
You need to have a bit of cop-on.
Sentiment score: 0.00
You know that excise duty cannot be reduced in the North.
Sentiment score: 0.00
Do not be stupid. You know that. Do not let yourself down.
Sentiment score: 0.14
For God's sake, you know that the North does not have taxation powers.
Sentiment score: 0.00