I stood here on 24 March when the Taoiseach and Government announced just 3 cent of a reduction in the cost of green diesel and 2 cent on kerosene. I begged the Government from where I am standing now to listen to me and to come in and address it the following week. I said if it had forgotten or did not understand, I was pleading with it to rectify it. It was allowed to carry on and it went from bad to worse when a Minister gave €40 million again to Ukraine in the middle of it. It was like throwing gallons of petrol on the fire because people are feeling the pinch like never before. There is a package and the Minister of State can listen to me or not but there will be another occasion like today and maybe more than that. In the package being given out, there is no mention of the cost of the diesel or doing anything about the diesel for construction machines that are involved in the building of houses, such as the high rise cranes, the diggers digging the foundations or putting in the services underground, whether they are mini-diggers or larger diggers. There is something, though not enough, for farmers and agricultural contractors but there is nothing at all for civil contractors. I am asking the Government not to ignore me and not to forget it because there is much consternation that it has not been addressed. I feel the reason it has not been addressed is that the Government kept a lot of people out of the talks who had things to say. There were plenty of rooms around Dáil Éireann for the Government to talk to them in and it just did not want to. Will the Government give the people down the country the feeling that the Dáil appreciates them, that they are wanted and needed and that they will be looked after properly because that has not been happening?

Sentiment score: 0.05