2026-04-21

234. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance if he will consider the maximum removal of mineral oil tax on home heating oil given the substantial price increases; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26927/26]

I am sure the Minister will not listen to this either.

I always listen.

He always listens. The last time the Minister listened the Government was trying to turn the Army on our own people. That is the listening. That is the reaction we got from Government.

There is one army.

Let me just say this here-----

Can both of you please address your remarks through the Chair and we might get through the questions?

Some 750,000 households across the State rely on home heating oil to heat their homes. Last night, at a public meeting attended by hundreds in Galway to discuss the cost-of-living crisis, I spoke to a carer who went into a home of an elderly woman. She worked all her life, paid her taxes and did everything right and apologised for the house being so cold because the heating had run out. The Minister refuses to cut excise duty on home heating oil to support household like hers, along with 750,000 other households. We have record surpluses of over €9 billion, yet the Government refuses to introduce a measure that would cost €14 million per month. Why is the Minister so out of touch? Why is he acting so Scrooge-like when he knows people are cold in their homes today because they cannot afford to heat them.

The Deputy cannot come in here and spend the surplus and then pursue a policy agenda that would have resulted in us never having it. We would not have had a surplus if we had followed his economic plan. It has been hard-won and earned by the Irish people and is there to be deployed in an appropriate manner and to make sure that the Deputy's children and mine never experience the austerity we experienced. It is there as an intergenerational support. The Deputy knows that. We put it into funds. They are not rainy day funds; they are funds to prepare for the changes and challenges the country will face in terms of demographics. They are funds to deliver infrastructure and climate projects. They are funds that are making a real difference. The cost of home heating oil in this country is too high; of that there is no doubt. The energy crisis caused by the war has had a real impact. We have decided not to proceed with the carbon tax increase to assist in not making that situation worse. It is a fair comment. The Deputy asked me to suspend it and we did so because it is a proportionate response.

I do not want it suspended; I want it cancelled.

Fair enough. Once we do one thing, the Deputy wants us to do the next. He originally asked us to suspend it.

Please.

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. It is my time so I am going to speak.

Go ahead.

I have been very clear that we do not rule out the need to make further energy interventions. An energy crisis in the months of April and May will be very different from an energy crisis in the months of October, November and December. We have to prepare for that period too. The fuel allowance is being provided to 470,000 households. I do not know the circumstances of the pensioner's home the Deputy was in last night, but I know many pensioners, including those most at risk of fuel poverty, people with a disability, carers and low-income working families now more than ever qualify for the fuel allowance. A typical household receiving the fuel allowance will have received €1,216 over the course of the fuel allowance season. The carbon tax makes up 10% of the total cost of home heating oil based on figures from 16 April. We have extended the fuel allowance season by a further four weeks to assist people who are struggling to pay for their home heating oil and those most at risk of poverty and to help them offset some of those costs.

This is the problem. The Minister does not understand the scale of the crisis or the lived experience of many people across the State. Before we had a fuel crisis, 320,000 families could not pay their electricity bills. Families were pushed to the pin of the collar because of increases in grocery prices, rents and insurance and childcare costs that were like a second mortgage. A generation felt home ownership was outside of the reach because of Government policies. The fuel crisis, brought on by external factors, has tipped people over the edge. People expect the Government to respond. I spoke to the Minister about an old woman to wear an extra jacket because she has no heating in her home. This is not an isolated incident. A young woman wrote to me to tell me she had no home heating oil for two weeks because she could not afford it on top of medical and childcare expenses. She wrote to me on the day the Government announced its latest package of half measures. She said for the first time in a long time she felt a sense of hope, like maybe the pressure might ease even slightly, but by the time she finished work and saw the news, that small glimmer of light was gone again. She said it is hard to describe how it feels. The Minister sits there and pats himself on the back. He said our budget surpluses have doubled. We have €4 billion extra that we never thought we would have, but an elderly woman has to put on a jacket because our house is cold and a woman who is married to a fella who works every hour that God sends cannot afford heat in her home. There is something seriously wrong in this republic when people are left like that.

The Deputy suggests the Government does not take action to endeavour to assist people. That is his mantra. That is air enough. That is what he says but it is not true. There are other facts. We are presiding over a country where the average weekly wage is over €1,000. They are not my figures; they are from the CSO. Every working day in this country 200 new jobs are being created. The long-term unemployment rate is at around 1%, an historic low. We announced a package of €750 million to directly help people, including the person to whom the Deputy referred. We have reduced the cost of filling a car relative to what it would have been, extended the fuel allowance, supported key sectors of the economy and, crucially, introduced measures that are reducing inflation. It would have been higher by 0.6% a month were not for the measures we have taken. In our latest budget we provided the largest ever increases in areas such as the child support payment. We are prioritising those most in need. The Deputy said I do not understand the scale of the problem. I am not sure he understands it. No government in the world can fully insulate its country from the economic impact of this war. We cannot look at this through the prism of today or tomorrow. We have to look at this in terms of preparing for the time ahead because if we do not keep our powder dry and instead do everything that comes into the Deputy's mind today or tomorrow that might make us popular in the short term but it sure as hell will not keep the people of this country safe in the months ahead.

The Tánaiste's mantra again speaks to me of the fact that he does not understand where people are at. Does the Tánaiste think the woman who wrote to me does not know what she is earning? Of course she knows what she is earning but she also knows that the cost of electricity has gone through the roof. She also knows that the weekly shop is a lot more expensive than it was last week, that the cost of childcare is another mortgage and that rents are increasing. Now she also knows that her house is cold for two weeks because she cannot afford to heat her home. I am not asking the Tánaiste to spend all of the €9.1 billion surplus. Rather, I am asking him to do what a responsible Minister for Finance would do when he or she sees that citizens are suffering and in crisis - to show leadership and act to support them. The Tánaiste can do that. He can cut excise duty on home heating oil today. It would cost €14 million - not billion – per month. The Tánaiste refuses to do it, however. It would make a real difference to her and so many others like her but the Tánaiste refuses to do it. He is seriously out of touch with where public opinion is at on this.

The Deputy is seriously out of touch in terms of the scale of the economic challenge facing the world right now. The Deputy’s position on this is to ask for more and more money to be spent every day. Maybe that is what one does when one is in opposition. In fairness, not all Opposition parties do that, but maybe that is what the Deputy’s party does when it is in opposition. The Deputy is ignoring the fact that he would not be able to speak to any of my European counterparts who has done more. If he brings in Rachel Reeves or asks the finance ministers in Germany, France or Italy - he can pick any country - he will learn that we have taken more action than almost any other European country per head of population, and rightly so because we have run the economy well. If the Deputy were sitting on this side of the House - thankfully the people have not put him here the last number of times they were asked – we would not have the surpluses that he now demands we spend. We have to take this step by step. That is not a mantra; it is a fact. It is the best advice available to me. Asking me to do more on heating during the summer months when I have to prepare for the winter months is not a sensible thing. This is about actually-----

What is she supposed to do? Should she wear another jacket or tighten her belt? What advice do you have? Should she put on another coat?

If you accept that the fuel allowance is a payment, albeit one you want to blow a hole in through the carbon tax-----

That is nonsense.

Ignoring that, if you accept that the fuel allowance is an important way of helping the people most at risk of fuel poverty, which I think is your position in the North-----

Are you saying they are just stupid and not managing their budgets? What are you saying?

The only step the Sinn Féin Minister of Finance in the North has taken is a very small step towards a smaller version of the fuel allowance. You are in government in the North.

They cannot afford their heat.

You have the First Minister, the Minister of Finance and the Minister for the Economy-----

They cannot afford their heat.

-----but you are not doing anything to help in the North at all. People need to look at how you say one thing down here and you do another thing up there.

You need to have a bit of cop-on.

It is complete hypocrisy.

You know that excise duty cannot be reduced in the North.

There is lots you could do.

Do not be stupid. You know that. Do not let yourself down.

There is lots you could do.

For God's sake, you know that the North does not have taxation powers.

Deputy Doherty, address your remarks through the Chair. Have a bit of respect for other Members in terms of how you address them. There is an appropriate way to do that. You might engage with and check the Standing Orders as well so that when you come in here, you understand that you are governed by certain Standing Orders.