Politics, for better or worse, has made me occasionally suspicious of things. When things happen suddenly or without warning, I wonder what exactly is happening. I am a bit of a nerd, I have to admit. I like maths, numbers and researching things I am interested in. After a few hours of researching this amendment and looking at the Bill, I find what the Government is doing deeply troubling. I want to be really clear here. We in the Social Democrats have supported the Government on reductions in excise and on relief for hauliers. We are even willing to support half of this Bill to relieve two months of the levy. However, it turns out this Bill also authorises something the Minister did not acknowledge in his opening remarks. I am severely disappointed by the lack of transparency from the Minister, his Department and the Government. What he is proposing is the authorisation of a 20-month raiding of the climate action fund. That is what this Bill does. It would be better called the climate action fund reversal Bill. I will take Deputies through how I came across this. It was deliberately obfuscated from the Dáil.

Sentiment score: 0.09

It is not, but it is a very significant provision that the Government has put into it. Let me take Deputies through how I came across it. The Government has deliberately obfuscated this from the Dáil and it is a very serious matter for Government backbenchers, in particular. On the face of it, the change to the Order of Business to add to the agenda an amendment to the National Oil Reserves Agency Act 2007 does not seem like a big deal. Any reasonable person recognises the fallout of the illegal war initiated by the United States and Israel against Iran and its people would have consequences in Ireland. It is far-reaching. Therefore, maybe we needed to do something with the national oil reserves, but when I read the amendment proposed within the past 24 hours and put on the agenda this morning, it did not refer to releasing oil reserves. That power is already granted by the 2007 Act. It did not talk about increasing supply to provide relief to hard-pressed families. No, it had something about pausing a levy of 2 cent per litre. Again, that does not seem like a big deal given excise went down by 17 cent per litre last night, which we in the Social Democrats supported. I dug a little deeper. That 2 cent is the total funding for the National Oil Reserves Agency, coming to about €120 million in income for the agency in 2024, according to its financial statements. The Bill proposes in the first instance to effectively get rid of that levy for the next few months, which is reasonable - laudable, even. We are in an energy crisis, after all. But then there is this other measure in the Bill, section 1(b). This provision says the Minister can suspend the levy after those two months for a while if he wants. Maybe that is reasonable. The question is for how long, how much it costs and what effect it has. The amendment says he can suspend it to December 2027, a potential 18-month additional suspension of the levy. That is strange. We did not do that for the excise taxes or hauliers last night. It is quite an odd thing to do. What is also odd is that the Minister can do it at his sole discretion. That is interesting. Ministers can do things at their sole discretion all the time through statutory instruments but it is strange to create a brand new statutory instrument within 24 hours, so it made me a little more suspicious. The Minister will have to forgive me. I decided to look at the finances. It turns out the run rate for the levy is about €10 million per month. Two months would cost €20 million, which means 18 more months would cost a whopping €180 million. A potential €200 million reduction in the public finances is worrying. With this Bill, the Dáil is being asked, in effect, to pre-approve a tax cut of up to €200 million at the sole discretion of one Minister. It is very strange. Last night, the Dáil sat until 11 p.m. to authorise a package of €250 million. Today, it seems the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, can just change the fiscal position of the strategic oil reserves by €200 million with the flick of a pen and with no oversight by the Dáil, no authorisation from the Cabinet and absolutely no one else involved. Not even the Minister for Finance can bring in a tax cut without the Taoiseach authorising it. A €200 million tax cut is a very big deal. It has consequences for the fiscal and financial position of the State. According to its financial statements, the National Oil Reserves Agency collected €120 million in 2024. It did something with that money. Can the Minister tell me what it was? I will yield 30 seconds of my time under Standing Order 61 if the Minister can answer that question.

Sentiment score: -0.08

Can you tell me the answer, Minister?

Sentiment score: 0.00

The National Oil Reserves Agency gave €100 million, or more than 80% of the levy, to the climate action fund that was set up by an amendment to the legislation in 2020. It turns out that is virtually the entirety of all funding for the climate action fund. The fund was set up to support a few really important things, as detailed in its 2024 annual report. In that year, it gave €8 million to a community climate action programme for local authorities, €10 million to the school photovoltaic programme to fund solar panels for schools, €17 million to the Bórd na Móna bog rehabilitation scheme, some of which was perhaps spent in County Offaly, and €58 million to the public sector energy efficiency scheme to reduce energy demand, which one might think would reduce prices. This is not about strategic oil reserves, relief for consumers or good governance. It is an open raiding of the climate action fund in the middle of an energy crisis. The Government gave a tax cut to developers and fast food chains in the latest budget but that was not enough. Now the Minister wants to steal the future of climate action while he is at it, with no oversight and no transparency. Everything is being hidden from the Oireachtas and even from the Government's own backbenchers. The Minister's actions will deprive this country of the climate action this crisis has shown it desperately needs.

Sentiment score: -0.03