I too welcome the package of €235 million. I am thankful for the reduction in white diesel for hauliers and the promised rebate that is to come. I also welcome the petrol reduction for all of those who are working hard and need their car to go to work. I deplore the fact that people who need heating oil only get a reduction of 2 cent a litre, which is only €20 for a fill of a 1,000-litre tank. That is very hard. I welcome the extension of the fuel allowance, but many people are not on the fuel allowance. Many hauliers have a haulier’s licence and operate that way, but there are other hauliers who do not have a haulier’s licence and do not have to have it, but who supply their own products. Agricultural lorries transporting cattle will not get the diesel rebate either. I am hurting for those people. Regarding green diesel for the tractor men, as the Ministers know, no tractor has gone inside a gap for the last three months, and now is the time that they are making a start. Because of the weather conditions, they could not do a bit until now, and there is a lot of work waiting. To offer them 2 cent or 3 cent of a reduction is totally unfair. I was brought up to believe that we should treat everyone fairly. Whatever way the Government could have got around that, it should have done something better for the tractor people. I include in that the industrial workers and fishermen. Those with any type of engine that uses green diesel are paying up to €1.68 a litre when it was 98 cent three weeks ago. That is an awful jump of 70 cent a litre. The cost of electricity has gone up day by day since the Government closed Bord na Móna. This war might continue, and no one in here or outside can say it will or will not. I am asking the Government to review the rules it has made on turf cutting and ensure that people who have the facility, have a bog and can cut turf are allowed to cut it, whether it is to sell it or use it themselves. That has to be reviewed because of the cost of electricity. We may not have electricity. I am also hurting because of the fact that there was no bother two or three weeks ago with Ireland supporting a loan of €1.8 billion to keep the war in Ukraine going, yet we cannot find enough money anywhere to help the tractor men who are using green diesel. The day Zelenskyy was here, we also gave him €125 million.

Sentiment score: -0.04