This crisis began at a time when households across the State were already bearing the brunt of a severe cost-of-living crisis, with 320,000 households in arrears on their energy bills, having been totally abandoned by the Government in the last budget. The half-measures announced by the Government yesterday are too little, too late. The Government has sat on its hands for the past four weeks, and only now has it brought forward limited measures to respond, very reluctantly and after sustained pressure from Sinn Féin and the general public. The Government, however, went only halfway. It decided against the maximum excise cut on petrol and diesel. It decided to knock only a lousy 5 cent off a litre of green diesel, with another insulting reduction in the price of heating oil, just 2 cent per litre. It has not gone unnoticed that those in rural communities, farmers and households who rely on home heating oil and fuel for farming or to get from A to B have in particular been failed by the Government and thrown to the wolves when it comes to these measures. Some 750,000 households across this State rely on home heating oil. To make matters worse, the 2 cent reduction will be wiped out in a few weeks' time when the Government proceeds with its carbon tax increase. It could have removed the excise completely. It could scrap its carbon tax increase. That would have given meaningful relief to families struggling to heat their homes. The Government did not do so, however, because it is completely out of touch. I appeal to Government Ministers to stop gaslighting the public when it comes to the carbon tax, saying the revenue is essential for climate action and ring-fenced for that purpose. That is absolute rubbish. The Government does not have a notion where that money is being spent, with hundreds of millions unaccounted for, according to the Comptroller and Auditor General. The Government's grant schemes represent a massive transfer of wealth from low-income to high-income households, according to researchers in Trinity College. The Government should stop spoofing, stop the carbon tax increases and support households.

Sentiment score: -0.13