The most important thing to come from this debate, which I thank Sinn Féin for arranging, is that people might see some hope that something is going to happen. Listening to the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, during Leaders’ Questions today, he kept saying that we would not have a knee-jerk reaction. It is 19 days since the war started, but outside of the real, horrible war going on, there was a war going on anyway in people's homes. They could not pay their previous bills and now we are in a crisis situation. I meet many constituents and some of them have told me – I presume it is the same in the Tánaiste’s constituency – that they had not filled the oil tank on the basis that the weather would turn fine in early March and they would not have to. They could put it off until the end of the year and have one less bill. They have now run out of oil. For elderly people, that is very difficult. Across all of the country, but especially in rural Ireland, people are crippled by the price of petrol, diesel and home heating oil. Families, workers, small businesses and the independent forecourts that keep our communities going are all being pushed to the brink. The facts are laid out very clearly by the Irish Petrol Retailers Association. Retailers are operating on margins as low as 1%, with underground tanks holding just a few days’ worth of stock, meaning they must pay rising wholesale prices immediately or go without supply. They cannot absorb these increases. They are price-takers, not price setters. Meanwhile, the State takes 60% to 65% of the cost of every litre in taxes and levies - excise, carbon taxes, a National Oil Reserves Agency, NORA, levy and VAT on top of everything else. The list goes on. We are told that international instability is pushing up prices but the reality is clear, in that Ireland's pre-tax fuel prices are around the EU average, yet once taxes are added, we shoot to the top of the European price table. That is not caused by retailers or the ordinary motorist. It is caused by Government policy. Who pays the highest price for that? It is the rural communities where a car is not a luxury, but a necessity. It is lower and middle-income families who cannot afford an electric vehicle. It is tradespeople such as fishers, farmers, carers and haulage operators who keep the shelves stocked. Many can no longer absorb these hikes. For them, the weekly fuel bill has become a crisis. The Irish Petrol Retailers Association has been crystal clear in its asks: reduce excise duty on petrol and diesel; pause carbon tax increases until the real impact is assessed; review the layering of the levies and the practice of taxing taxes; and establish a proper, consultative forum so that these decisions are not made over the heads of the people most affected by them. This is not about avoiding climate action. It is about fairness and balance. The current approach is regressive and hits rural Ireland hardest. No Government committed to regional equality can stand over it. I am calling for immediate relief at the pumps because every €10 or €15 spent filling a tank is a €10 or €15 cut to a worker’s income, a family's budget or a small business’ future. I met representatives of the Irish Road Haulage Association here today and it is in dire crisis. Unless there is an immediate announcement, some serious decisions are going to have to be made. People are left deciding between either heating or eating. For many of the elderly, it has got to a choice of eating only. People might think that is not true, but many elderly people tell me that they are sat with duvets and blankets. That is very unfair. It is still cold and nasty weather out there for an elderly person. A bit of heat is worth the world. I get phone calls every day of the week; my phone is on fire. I am told that the office is being called constantly by people who feel they have been hit hard, robbed, this and that because they are paying through the nose for oil. I am very concerned about the price of food, and the price of fertiliser is going to go mad. If the price of fertiliser is going to go mad, the price of food on the table is going to go crazy and people will not be able to afford it. That is another crisis in itself. I listened to the Green Party, which promised the world and spent four to five years in government but delivered absolutely nothing save for more taxes. People would like to turn to solar energy. There is no point in anyone saying we should not have solar energy; that is only nonsensical rubbish. People are anxious to turn to solar, but if you want to run a home on solar energy - I listened to a person recently who is getting solar energy – you are talking about a cost of €17,000 to €20,000. The grant is €1,800. That is paltry. In the name of God. That was the Green Party. Deputy O’Gorman does not want to agree with this motion because it might mean we would have to lower the carbon tax and help people. The Green Party does not help people. When it was in government, it could have delivered a grant aid that would have encouraged homes to go solar. A grant of €1,800 when it will cost €20,000 is a pittance of a grant to encourage people. That is where there was a massive lost opportunity. When the Green Party was in government, it failed to deliver for the ordinary people who maybe would have turned around. To go back to 2022, I had a conversation with the Taoiseach on fossil fuels. I dug out my speech. Everybody around the world knew we needed fossil fuels. We are all trying to move away in a different direction. I fully understand that. Unfortunately, the Taoiseach at that time was brainwashed by the Greens. All the Deputies on that side were brainwashed by the Greens. I could not get them to understand that they would need fossil fuel going forward. They did not want to be knocking on the door of Moffat in Scotland for our fuel and we were to have independence in terms of fuel, wind energy and solar, but we did not. Nothing happened. We seem to be brain-blocked. Barryroe field was there to be explored. Not at all, we could not touch it. We could bring it in no problem, but we were not to have energy independence. This has cost us extremely dearly. I have put my speech that day up on my Facebook page if anybody has any interest in watching it. In 2022, the Taoiseach told me I was wrong. Today, we are right.

Sentiment score: -0.03