2026-04-14

I move that: That Dáil Éireann: recognises that: — unsustainably high energy and fuel prices in this state further compounded a pre-existing cost of living crisis; — the duty of the Government is to protect people from severe energy shocks to the greatest extent possible; and — the Government has the ability to cut the cost of fuel; notes that: — home heating oil has hit the highest price on record going back 30 years; — petrol and diesel are on course to exceed their highest price on record this month; and — the price of green diesel and other fuels are at unsustainably high levels; condemns the Government for: — not reconvening the Dáil last week and not introducing emergency supports; — delays and half measures that abandoned many households and left sectors of the economy badly exposed; and — not engaging directly with the protestors that has made the situation worse; and calls on the Government to: — take the maximum action necessary to cut fuel prices so they are affordable for the workers, families and sectors that rely on them. Tá daoine ar fud an Stáit seo faoi bhrú millteanach agus tá sé ag éirí níos measa. Tá costas breosla ag ardú agus tá an costas maireachtála ag goilliúint. Le scéal fada a dhéanamh gairid, níl aon spás fágtha ag oibrithe agus teaghlaigh na praghsanna seo a iompar. Tá gníomh cinntithe de dhíth orthu ón Rialtas seo ach in áit sin fuair siad moill, lag-iarracht agus freagra nár shroich an méid atá de dhíth ag daoine. The reality facing people right across this State is stark. In rural Ireland and in communities right across the country, people have no alternative to the car. There is no reliable public transport network and there is no option but to pay. Right now, that cost is crushing people. Fuel prices have surged and families are watching the cost of filling the tank as it spirals week after week. For those relying on home heating oil - and there are 750,000 of a million of them - the situation is even worse. This is not an abstract situation. This is about people wondering how they are going to get to work. This is about parents deciding which bill does not get paid. It is about older people and carers rationing heat in their homes. All the while, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have delayed and dithered. They refused to act as costs spiralled out of control and pressure mounted. Now, after weeks of delay and public anger forced their hand, they are bringing forward a package that still falls far short of what is required. It does not match the scale of the crisis. It does not provide certainty to workers who rely on their cars every day. It does not address the reality facing households that are dependent on home heating oil. Once again, it leaves far too many people behind. We again see a familiar pattern of limited measures focused on particular sectors while ordinary workers and families are expected to carry the burden. That is the core of this failure. Even in the context of today’s announcement, the choices made will not cut it. There were real choices to be made, and we have put them forward in the amendments. The Government could have removed excise duty from home heating oil, but it did not. It could have cut the cost of diesel to bring the level to a more affordable one, but it chose not to. It could have done the same with petrol, but it decided to turn its face against that. It could have gone further to deliver real, immediate relief, but it refused. Instead, it produced a package that will not even keep pace with rising prices. No amount of spin regarding today’s figures changes that reality for anyone. Let us be honest about how we got here. I cannot for the life of me understand why the Social Democrats and the Labour Party voted against the Sinn Féin amendments to help people keep their homes warm, get from A to B, drop their kids to school and go to appointments. I was shocked to see them voting with the Government and voting against the sensible proposals we put forward.

Hear, hear.

This Government is not acting and is not listening. It was dragged to take action by public anger and by pressure, because people could not take any more. Even now, after all that, what has been brought forward falls far short. As if that was not enough, the Government is turning its fire not just on the protesters but also on the media. We have had a Minister question RTÉ’s coverage of the protests. That is, as has been said by others, a sinister intervention. It is an attempt to lean on journalists, to second-guess editorial decisions and to signal that coverage of political protest should somehow be policed. That strikes at the heart of a free media. We have been here before in this country and Sinn Féin suffered the consequence of it. The Minister seems to want to bring us back to the days of section 31, when Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael censored our political party and prevented us from being allowed to even talk on the national airwaves. This crisis is not about media rows, however. It is about ordinary people. It is about those who have no choice but to drive to work, who are trying to heat their homes today and who are struggling with the wider cost-of-living crisis. They needed decisive action and real relief. They are not getting it from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. When Ministers quote the figures relating to today’s package, they need to understand one thing. They need to understand that for the people living through this crisis, those figures do not change their reality. They do not change the pressure in a meaningful way. They do not match either the scale of the crisis or what is needed. This is why today’s amendment from Sinn Féin matters. It is because the Dáil has a choice to accept a late, limited response that leaves people behind or to demand real action and leadership that meets the scale of this crisis. The Government failed to act when people needed it. It is now refusing to act at the scale required.

Last October, when we debated the multibillion euro budget brought forward by the Government, we warned that people had been put to the pin of their collars. The Government brought in a budget - and the Minister of State supported it - which gave billions of euro to corporate landlords, banks and the wealthiest in the country, but very little to most working families. They were promised tax cuts and childcare cost cuts that they never got. What they actually got were increases. College fees went up. People looked on as groceries and insurance costs rose. Rents are going up. More people are homeless, and more people are facing homelessness. We warned the Government that this was getting close to a tipping point and that people were really stretched. The Government ignored us. We told it that the anger of people, because of a multibillion euro budget that left them high and dry, was simmering, and it ignored us. A number of weeks ago, when the Government brought forward its first package of measures, we again warned it that this was coming close to a tipping point. Deputy Pearse Doherty brought forward alternative measures that could have avoided the protests, avoided the disruption we saw, given leadership and given supports to families, and again the Government ignored us. It got to a point where people had enough. That is why I had people the length and breadth of this country contacting me to say they were proud of Ireland and proud of the people of Ireland and of the truckers, farmers, hauliers, small contractors and others who were taking to the streets because of the failure of this Government. They were looking on and they were applauding because they know that they are also being shafted by the same Government. That is why we are back here again. When we debated this issue a number of weeks ago, the Minister of State and his Government colleagues told us that the package was enough, and that was it. The Government is back now with its tail between its legs. It has come back with more, but, again, these are half measures. The Government comes back every time a day late and a dollar short. It leaves people behind, and people are sick and tired of it. They are sick and tired of this do-nothing Government that does not represent ordinary working people and that just leaves them high and dry over and over again.

I am conscious of how deeply disappointed many people across this country are that this do-nothing Government is still in place. These are people struggling to get by. They are people who cannot afford to heat their homes, families, people with disabilities, children pushed into poverty, people who cannot afford to put fuel in their cars, the carers, the home help and other workers and small businesses struggling to survive. I assure them that Sinn Féin has their backs and will continue to fight on their behalf. The message I want to send to them this evening is not to lose hope. I come from a rural constituency. I know all too well that homes there are reliant on home heating oil. Once again, the Government has abandoned these people with its half measures. There are 750,000 of these households across the country. Over a month ago, Sinn Féin proposed the complete removal of carbon tax and excise duty on home heating oil. Instead, the Government reduced the National Oil Reserves Agency, NORA, levy by 2 cent per litre. That is even before we consider the hardship of people with defective concrete blocks who are watching their homes crumbling and looking at the cracks in the wall with the wind coming through them. I went to the fuel protests in Mayo and did not see any Government TDs there. Instead, the Minister for justice threatened to send the Defence Forces against our own people. These were ordinary, decent, working people and their families - farmers, hauliers, bus drivers, contractors, people with disabilities, carers, and home help workers. They were participating in peaceful protests, having been forced into taking drastic action to save their businesses. They did not want to be there. They do not want to be on these protests. What were they supposed to do to get the attention of the Government and have their pleas heard? They are deeply disappointed about people who are supposed to be independent voices in here who continue to prop up this Government. The groups the Government decided were worthy enough of a meeting last week are not the only people who suffered during the fuel crisis. People providing meals on wheels, community workers and the carers I spoke about covered huge geographical areas in Mayo. One of the workers told me that it felt as though community health workers had been largely overlooked and abandoned by this Government. People with disabilities were left high and dry in the last budget; they were left €1,400 worse off. Sinn Féin has been calling for a cost-of-disability payment to help the most vulnerable in society through the prolonged cost-of-living crisis. Now these people are faced with soaring fuel costs and no support from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. These carers cannot afford the fuel to put in their cars to go and see the patients who rely so deeply on them.

The Government survived a vote today but the Minister of State should not kid himself - public confidence has not been restored. The Government limped through, shedding some of its own along the way. People will draw their own conclusions about the motivations behind those changes of heart. What is clear is that the outcome of today does absolutely nothing to change the reality that workers, families and businesses across the State are facing. People have lost confidence because this Government is not listening and has not listened. It has failed to act in any meaningful way on the fuel cost crisis hitting households. The Government still has not taken necessary steps to make fuel affordable at the pumps and has done nothing on home heating oil despite it reaching the highest prices on record. This is the Government’s second attempt, and once again, it has come up short. Last month, it was half measures. This month, it is just more of the same. Petrol and diesel are still on course to exceed record highs and home heating oil remains completely untouched. Across Waterford and the rest of the State, the reality is dark. Green diesel has nearly doubled in price in a matter of weeks, rising from 97 cent a litre in February to €1.80. For farmers, fishers, hauliers and small businesses, fuel is not optional. It is a core cost of them staying in business. That was the message that I heard clearly this weekend in Dungarvan and across Waterford more widely as my colleague Deputy Cullinane and I spoke with protesters, listened to them and heard their concerns, something that the Minister of State and his colleagues in government have failed and refused to do. Much better to denigrate and demonise than to actually listen. For workers and families, it is about the cost of getting to work and keeping the light and heat on. I have heard from disabled people, home care workers, health workers, apprentices and students who are all suffering. What do we see from the Government benches today? We see self-congratulations and back-slapping. Government TDs are telling everyone and anyone who will listen just how great the Government is and how well it is doing. They have said it so often that they probably even believe themselves, but people are not fooled. They see a Government that is arrogant, refuses to listen and is wilfully blind to the real hardship being experienced. The solutions are clear. We set them out for the Government three weeks ago and again today. A minimum 25 cent reduction on petrol and diesel at the pumps, maximum cuts to excise on green diesel, the complete removal of excise, including the carbon tax on home heating oil, and direct support for households in the grip of this crisis.

The depth of disappointment was evident in people across the length and breadth of the country over the past week, and that developed into anger as time went on. People say the Government is out of touch, but for some reason, it seems to be choosing to be out of touch and to walk away and not listen to ordinary, decent people. People can throw up all sorts of stories that some of the protesters were this, that and the other, but the fact of the matter is the vast majority of people who went out to voice their concerns were hard-working people with their tractors or buses. They are people we all know in all of our communities and whom our communities depend upon. When you are stuck, they are the ones you turn to. These are the people who were so disappointed with Government. This conflict started out in the Gulf when Israel and America bombed Iran and all of a sudden the price of oil went up across the world. Of course the Government cannot control that, but it can control the taxes it takes on it. It can do something to help people. People simply could not understand and still cannot understand why it took so long for the Government to realise it had to actually sit up and listen. It took people blockading the whole country, coming out on the streets, marching around pushing babies in prams and asking the Government to please listen to them because they were suffering and needed help. The Government refused to listen. We are now in a situation where the Government comes with these measures, which are too little, too late. That is what most people feel. The Government needs to recognise that because there is a huge sense of people being frustrated and annoyed but also deeply disappointed. The vast majority of people I met on those protests were people who voted for the Government parties, not for us. Those people are absolutely gutted and cannot understand why the Government chose to turn its back on them in this way. It not only chose to turn its back on them and not listen to them, but to insult them and say it would bring the Army out and clear them out of the way. That smacks of something so high-handed that the Government really needs to have a hard look at itself, at the leadership of both parties and at the Independents supporting it. We need to recognise that we have a distance to go, but the Government has not gone that distance and what it has done here is too little, too late.

How much noise needs to be made before the Government snaps out of its slumber and legislates for all of the people affected by the huge fuel price increases? It has selective hearing, sight and amnesia. It has selectively chosen who is to receive the most minimal cuts to fuel costs in some sectors while the general public and those in many industries who have to be on the road daily are forgotten. Was the Minister of State nice and warm when he woke up in his house this morning? I will tell him who were not: the people who rely on home heating oil and have to choose between heating and eating. What has the Government done for them? Nothing that makes a single iota of a difference. Private bus and coach operators that are not contracted to Bus Éireann are feeling the pressure and watch on as those with State contracts only receive cuts and rebates. Some of them are sitting in the Gallery as I speak this evening, so worried about the longevity of their livelihoods that they are still watching this debate. Home help carers and disability workers on the road from morning to night performing an essential role in every city, town, village and townland in this country have been left behind. How long before we hear of them being told to modify their travel or cut back somewhere due to the ever-rising fuel costs? Incredibly, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage issued a circular on 10 April telling the fire services not to automatically roll out with the ambulance services as per normal due to rising fuel costs. They are instructed not to conduct training unless it is essential and to only perform essential checks on their fire tenders. In all the back-slapping I listened to today from Government, it forgot to mention to the people of this country all of those people in services it had left behind, many of them crucial in their own ways and some even life-saving. The Government's failure to act has crossed a line with the people and there is no going back. It knows that itself deep down because its backbenchers have been in hiding for the past week. I am unapologetic for not accepting second best for workers, families and all the services the Government has left behind in its clamour to cling to power. I am unapologetic in voting no confidence in the Government because I know whose side I am on, and that is that of the people of this country. The Government may live to survive another day in this Chamber, but out there where it matters, its time is up. It has lost the confidence of the people.

Hear, hear.

The fact is the Government did survive today, but that was not down to any conversation anybody had out there with people who were actually at the pin of their collar. It has been said by many but I am going to repeat it. Out at the protests were people who had never been seen on a protest before and who did not want to be anywhere next or near a protest. We are talking about agricultural contractors, farmers and those involved in the bus and coach industry. As Joanna Byrne has said, some of them are here today. There is some confusion and displeasure in relation to those who have the Bus Éireann and school bus transport rebate schemes, but these people have never got anything. They will tell us about the whole period during Covid when they were not looked after in any way, shape or form. We have had nothing but disrespect from the Government and the absolute denigration of those who, as a last resort, went out to put the pressure on. We have seen the impact of the pressure. We have had a ministerial resignation. We would like to think that we may see more of that into the future as people are held accountable by their own electorates and by the people they know because, to date, we have had a Government that has not listened to the severe pressure that people are under. The Minister of State, Deputy Troy, is no different than me. He is a constituency operator who has had people come into his office, including carers and those working as community nurses, who long before this period arrived spoke of the serious pressure they were under and that they were not sure how they could make it through or how the necessary work they were doing was going to wash its own face, because it would not. We had 320,000 people who were not able to pay their energy bills and were in arrears. Then we have this. As Deputy Kennedy has said - actually, I meant Deputy Kenny; it is not the first time I have got that wrong - we do not hold the Government responsible for the madness of genocidal Israel and for Donald Trump, but we do hold the Government responsible for not listening, for not taking action and for the utter ineptitude of putting fuel on the fire in relation to the protests and what was going on during the week. Reference was made to those who were discommoded, and they were, but it could have been ended by the Government much more easily. What we need to see is real action. The Government survived today but it will not survive into the future because we need to see a real Government that delivers for people. What we have seen to date is failure. It is failure to listen and failure to act in real terms.

Thank you, Deputy-----

On diesel, petrol, home heating oil-----

Deputy, you should conclude.

-----not enough has been delivered. It is too little, too late.

I call the Minister of State, Deputy Troy.

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I will keep my voice at a reasonable level. I do not feel that just by shouting it makes a point any more valid. I welcome the opportunity to discuss the Sinn Féin Private Members' motion on fuel this evening. I will start off by saying that, as a Government Minister of State, I engaged with the people who were protesting. I went out and met the people on the M4 in Mullingar. I recognise that those people were decent, honourable and hard-working people who did not wish to be there. They conducted the protest in Mullingar in a very responsible manner, which facilitated the free movement of people. They engaged respectfully with the Garda to ensure that people could move freely. That, however, is not a true reflection of what happened everywhere.

It is what we had in Dundalk.

That is not a true reflection of what happened everywhere and we need to acknowledge that also. The Deputy is right that the Government won the confidence vote in the Dáil. As I said in my contribution on the confidence motion, we would be extremely foolhardy and wrong as a Government if we did not acknowledge the anxiety, fear and frustration out there of the people we represent. Sinn Féin does not have a monopoly on representation of people. Nobody does. Each one of us has received our own democratic mandate to be here for a period of five years. We may disagree in terms of how we address certain issues but this Government is acutely aware of the current fuel crisis faced by all sectors of our society. That is why we have responded with the second sizable package in the space of a number of weeks to alleviate some of those pressures. This is not a half measure as asserted in the Sinn Féin motion. When we combine the two packages, this is the most comprehensive package of any country in the EU. It is important to state that, as a Government, we do not have the luxury of coming forward with uncosted proposals. We have the responsibility not only to respond in the short term but also to manage the long-term economic stability of this country. If it were not for the proper and prudent management of the economy over the last number of years, we would not be in a position to make the interventions at the rate we have been able to do over the last weeks. I note that Sinn Féin's motion is quick to state that the prices of fuels are high, but it fails to state the reason the prices of fuels are high. I wish to state unequivocally that the spikes in the price of fuels are not, as the Opposition would lead you to believe, solely and exclusively due to taxation. The price of fuel is determined by a number of factors, most of which are outside of the Government's control, including the wholesale market price, international market dynamics, international exchange rate impacts, distributional costs, and retail pricing policy. Excise duty is calculated on a volumetric basis, meaning that the cash value of the tax collected remains the same regardless of the price on the forecourt. In the context of excise reductions, this means that the State will collect significantly less excise for every litre of fuel sold. While VAT operates as an ad valorem tax and, therefore, VAT receipts do increase as the price of a commodity increases, the figures that have been quoted in the Dáil and in the media by certain members of the Opposition have been disingenuous and off the mark. This was done in a calculated way to instil fear, sow division and exploit the legitimate fears and concerns of members of our community. The Government does not seek or want high fuel prices. Higher energy prices create higher business input costs. This creates higher prices for goods and services, which impacts everybody. Previously, we had calls from Opposition benches for things like price caps. That would be an extremely expensive and untargeted measure. Price controls below the market price for any goods or services would impose costs on retailers. In some cases, this could be absorbed by a reduction in profitability, but in most cases this would result in losses for the retailer. Given the very large increases in fuel prices, imposing price controls on fuel retailers would render most unviable and they would exit the market. This would result in the State having to subsidise fossil fuel consumption directly at an enormous cost to the taxpayer. Introducing a price cap on fuel to the level some Opposition Deputies have been suggesting could cost billions of euro. That money is being spent on essential services such as health, education and housing, all things that various members of the Opposition seek further expenditure on. For those who suggest that the Government introduce a piece a price cap on fuels, I ask those very same Deputies to provide a list of the public services they suggest cutting to pay for this.

There is €12.5 billion of a surplus.

There is no magic money tree out there.

There is a €12.5 billion surplus.

We must underline and understand that what we are seeing at the moment is a large increase in the wholesale market price of oil as a result of the supply shock caused by the conflict in the Middle East. This is compounding the supply issues we faced at the beginning of the war in Ukraine. That is what is driving the increase in fuel costs. Sinn Féin’s motion on fuel prices fails to mention that fact. This is an enormous challenge, not just for Ireland, but for every country around the world facing into the energy crisis. It is the Government’s job to strike an appropriate balance between keeping our economy moving and our public services funded while shielding the most vulnerable from the worst impacts of the energy shock. It is fair to say that the measures taken by the Government are to support the sectors most adversely affected and those at risk of fuel poverty. Public funds are not infinite, nor should they be spent on uncosted general measures as Sinn Féin has suggested in its motion. I will not go through the list of supports that the Government has announced, between the initial announcement over three weeks ago and the most recent announcement voted on in the past hour. The overall cost of the Government-supported packages is in the region of €750 million. As I said already, it is per capita the biggest and most comprehensive intervention of any country in the euro. These supports are timely and necessary. Just as we said when we made the initial announcement, these supports will be monitored and kept under review. The truth is that nobody on that side of the House and nobody on this side of the House can say with certainty what is going to happen with the war in the Middle East and when we will see a return to the normal production and supply of oil in a global sense. That is why we have to ensure we remain agile and responsive to the needs of the people we are honoured to represent in this House.

Ministers spoke earlier about Government measures and responsibilities, and how they have the best interests of the people of Ireland in mind. Will the Minister of State tell me this? In the most recent budget, the Government gave a generous tax break to the highly profitable fast food giants like McDonald's and Burger King. How is that in the best interests of ordinary working people?

You supported that.

Sorry?

You supported it.

Do not interrupt the Deputy.

You supported it.

Is this a questions and answers session?

The question I asked was how that was good for ordinary working people, the people we were out on the protest with. The Government's tax breaks ensured that the profits of big developers pushed the average profit of an apartment from approximately €50,000 to €80,000, yet when ordinary working people try their best to get by, go to work, raise a family and find a home and ask for a break and supports, they are given crumbs like a handful of cent off the price of green diesel and home heating oil. Average prices for a home continue to run away from the reach of ordinary people. I am proud to have spent so much time with those on a protest in Kilkenny, ordinary people from every walk of life who are tired and just want a break from the struggles of everyday life. What I found so uplifting was the constant support coming from the public and from local businesses who wanted to stand with those on the picket line. There is the sheer volume of people who have emailed me over the past few weeks and shared their own personal stories of how the cost-of-living crisis has been suffocating their lives. However, they have been suffering before now. It has not just been because of the war. They have been suffering because of the Government. I got emails from older people and people with disabilities who wanted to be out with the protesters, but they could not because they were at home trying to stay warm, in their beds for longer than they needed to because they could not afford heating oil. It is as simple as that. I met workers in their 20s and 30s who felt helpless. They asked me what the point was in paying taxes in this country as they would never be able to afford a house. They did not know if they would be able to afford to have children. Parents I met are worried about the future of their own children. There were grown men who cried because their businesses were going under. The political decisions of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have only added fuel to their fire. I stand with the ordinary people of Ireland, who have absolutely no confidence in the Government. The volume of emails I got have stated that quite clearly. Ministers say, as one did today, that some of the people on the protest were their friends. You do not treat your friends like that. I can go back to Carlow-Kilkenny and hold my head high. I know whose side I am on. The Minister of State and the Government have failed to listen to the people. They have failed time and time again to hear the people. It is shameful.

Tá an mhuinín caillte agam agus ag muintir na hÉireann as an Rialtas. Tá cosmhuintir na tíre ag streachailt agus ag fulaingt le costais mhaireachtála le fada agus níl an Rialtas tar éis dóthain a dhéanamh chun an brú a laghdú. Tá an Rialtas scoite ó shaol an ghnáthdhuine agus caithfidh sé imeacht. My office has been inundated with messages from hundreds of people in Kildare to express their lack of confidence in this Government to handle the current crisis and deliver a decent quality of life for people. The bottom line is that working people are crippled by rising costs and have been for a long time. The Government has consistently decided to sit back and do nothing. Prices at the pumps have skyrocketed since America's illegal war on Iran began. That is on top of soaring grocery prices, electricity, housing, childcare and insurance costs. None of this was inevitable. The Government has failed to act to reduce what are the highest electricity bills in Europe, leaving more than 300,000 in arrears. The Government has failed to do anything about price gouging in big supermarkets. It has failed to cap childcare costs, as promised, in its first year. It has made it policy that renters will face thousands of euro in rent hikes in the next couple of years. Now, it has short-changed households across the State with a set of half measures on fuel costs and a small cut in excise duty that will not make a dent in making fuel affordable for Kildare commuters who are already paying more than €100 per week for petrol. It has done nothing on home heating oil, leaving carers, elderly people and people with disabilities to choose between heating or eating. A woman in Athy told me she was rationing oil and using extra blankets to keep her two-year-old grandson warm at night. This is wrong. Incredibly, in the middle of this crisis, the Government raised school transport costs and brought back State exam fees. People are struggling and living pay cheque to pay cheque while the Government sits idly by. One man in Kildare town told me that this was affecting not just his quality of life, but his sense of security and stability. Not only are our leaders out of touch but they regard ordinary people with arrogance and disdain, as we saw on full display when the Taoiseach refused to meet with protesters to hear their concerns. Tá athrú de dhíth. This Government was only saved today because of a bunch of self-serving, spineless Independents.

The first thing I want to say is that I am really disappointed in the Labour Party and the Social Democrats tonight and how they voted. I cannot believe they voted with the Government and against Sinn Féin when we tried to bring down the price of fuel and home heating oil. We are supposed to be united together in opposition against the Government. We stood against it, and we voted that we did not have any confidence in it. We stood and did that together. At the same time, the Social Democrats and the Labour Party break and vote with the Government tonight. It is unbelievable on a night when the Government betrayed the people of Ireland. The people were betrayed in this Chamber tonight with the vote of confidence in this Government because no one outside Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and those Independents have confidence. Shame on them tonight. Shame on them for what they have done to the people. They have driven people to barriers and out to protest. They have united the people against this Government, against fuel taxes, against driving people into poverty and against driving people into being cold and hungry. How is it that a person can work all week long and have no money left at the end of it? The reason is that Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Independents are more interested in looking after themselves. What happened here tonight will be remembered. People will not forget what the Government has done. If its members think this is over, I can tell them it is not. The people's voices will be heard. We saw the Healy-Raes broke ranks tonight because they heard it in Kerry. They were told in Kerry that if they voted for this, they should not come back to Kerry. I tell the Government's members that if they keep going with what they are doing, not one of them will be back here after the next election. They have betrayed the people. They have put the interests of the party ahead of the people. How can that be right? In the last budget the Government gave nearly €700 million to speculators on apartments that were already profitable when people cannot put a roof over their heads and thousands of children are in homeless accommodation. I was talking to a man on the train up today. He, his wife and child came up here to protest. He said "Tommy, we never go to protests. Where is the future for my child? Where is the future for my family?" That is what people are saying. I was down in east Cork and met people. There were fellas who could not afford to go to work because it was costing them more to work than they were making. This Government has betrayed the people. When the show "Reeling in the Years" is on in years to come this will be remembered as the night Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Lowry Independents put themselves ahead of the people of Ireland, but the people of Ireland will not rest until they are gone out of government. They should be gone. They should hang their heads in shame. They should stand up and be counted. If the Minister of State believes the Government is right, let us have an election because the Government will be run out the door.

The Opposition cannot even agree what government we would have.

The Government will be run out the door.

The events of the last week have betrayed this Government's inability to grasp the level of desperation and frustration that is out there among people who feel they cannot keep their heads above water. The impetus behind these protests and blockades had been fermenting long before last week and long before Trump and Netanyahu’s illegal war on Iran, which is just the latest thing to give rise to a fuel shock and price shock. This is an issue that has been brewing for years. These protests last week became something far bigger than just a protest by farming and haulage sectors; they are about the level of desperation felt by workers and households who have for years been put to the pin of their collar by a spiralling and seemingly perpetual cost-of-living crisis that includes energy bills, rent, house prices, grocery prices, childcare costs, education costs and the cost of disability. I could go on. The frustration being aired on O’Connell Street, on the M50, in Whitegate and in Rosslare – that cry for help – had been coming from households and small businesses long before the escalation last week. The Government was warned about this. While the Labour Party might disagree with others in the Opposition on the details, we have consistently and as a united bloc said the Government is not doing enough to support working people and vulnerable people who feel they are on the brink. Time and again, this Government has shown whose side it is on. It has consistently put corporate interests and big businesses above the urgent needs of ordinary hard-working people. Workers and households up and down the country feel abandoned by this Government. It should have responded far sooner to the protests and blockades last week. What we saw was a Government flailing. It was a Government with no principles or values guiding its actions. It was a Government without a clue what to do. It had a leadership in the Taoiseach and Tánaiste that only spoke down to protesters without hearing or understanding the genuine grievances at the heart of the protests. It had a justice Minister playing the big man and threatening to deploy the Defence Forces, which served only to inflame tensions even further. This is not how to listen to genuinely held pleas for help. This is not how to manage a crisis. Last week we saw critical infrastructure blocked and serious disruption caused to working people and families in Dublin and across the country. We value protest and we must protect it, and protests by their very nature must be disruptive, but it was the Government that allowed the blockades at critical infrastructure sites to develop and to fester through its inaction, its inflammatory rhetoric and its failure to get around the negotiating table with the representative bodies. Working people, small businesses, small farmers and so on are at the sharp end of the cost-of-living crisis and very much have just cause to protest. I think we all - or certainly those on this side of the House - felt a considerable degree of support for the protests among the general population. I have received countless emails from constituents in Dublin South-West expressing their solidarity with those protesting and I found it telling that very few people contacted me who were annoyed at the protests despite the disruption. Despite some very questionable people leading the protests, fair-minded people can see there is a serious issue at the heart of these protests and blockades. Again, such is the desperation of so many people and such is the perpetual struggle with the cost of living that many workers and families joined the protests and there was a hope among many that the protests, as imperfect as they were, would lead to better outcomes for everyone. However, those regular PAYE workers have been left high and dry once again by this Government. As my colleague, Deputy Nash, has said, the package of measures announced on Sunday has been designed to placate narrow sectoral interests and has abandoned PAYE workers in the process even though they are the ones who will end up footing the bill for it. There is little or nothing in this package for the low- and middle-income workers under increasing pressure from rising energy bills, skyrocketing grocery prices and escalating housing costs. The Labour Party has advocated for time-limited supports to keep exposed sectors running, such as the small farmers and hauliers who play a vital part in our economy and are feeling the pinch. This Government has some real explaining to do to the 320,000 households in long-term arrears on their electricity bills who were looking to this package in the hope some respite would be forthcoming. Let us put this into context. Figures released to me by the CRU have shown the level of debt held in arrears on energy bills is about €185 million. The package of supports for the farming and haulage sectors announced on Sunday is worth almost three times the cost of giving an amnesty to those who cannot afford to keep up with their energy bills and are choosing heating and eating. Again, there is no doubt supports were required for these struggling sectors that rely on fuels like diesel and petrol, and we supported the Government’s Financial Resolutions because something is better than nothing and we understand the pressures facing those industries and ordinary people. However, the Government has decided once again to sideline ordinary workers and households who are barely able to keep their heads above water. These are people who have been crying out for help for years. The message that has been sent by Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Independents is they will only listen to your concerns if you close the country down, and that is an incredibly dangerous precedent to set. I also raise the carbon tax delay. There are any number of interventions the Government could have made to reduce the cost of fuel for hauliers, farmers and everyone else. It is deeply disappointing and depressing that it is this climate-positive measure the Government has chosen to jettison over any other option to alleviate the energy price crisis we are facing. The Government could have done subsidies, direct payments or additional excise cuts. I find it ironic that, on the week the Government has finally agreed to the long-held Healy-Rae and Sinn Féin policy of undermining the carbon tax, Sinn Féin chose to bring a motion of no confidence and Michael Healy-Rae chose to resign from Government. We need clarity from the Government on the impact this delay - if it is just a delay - is going to have on the funding of our vital climate measures the carbon tax pays for and is ring-fenced for. I refer to measures like retrofitting grants that are helping people to improve the energy efficiency of their homes and reduce their bills, measures like ACRES and other agri-environmental schemes that are helping farmers to decarbonise and therefore protect them against exposure to fossil fuel crises like the one they are experiencing at present and measures like the just transition fund and poverty supports. The carbon tax is a crucial funding source for the very measures that will help to move us away from our dependence on fossil fuels and protect us against future energy crises. Funding from the carbon tax has already been allocated to all of the measures in budget 2026-----

Forty per cent of it was not.

-----but was done so under the assumption that an increase would be happening next month.

Keep up, like.

We need clarity from the Government now on whether this delay will amount to a cut in the budget for climate measures or whether the funding gap will be made up by general Exchequer funding. I am pleading with the Government to ensure this move on carbon tax does not adversely impact on our already meagre just transition funding. Anything less would be a final nail in the coffin of this Government's commitment to meaningful climate action. If the Government decides it is going to use general taxation to make up the shortfall to fund these climate measures, funding that has already been allocated by the now abandoned carbon tax increase, then it Government needs to be honest with every taxpayer in this country that it has given up on the polluter pays principle and everyone is now subsidising the continued use of polluting fossil fuels which have brought us to this point.

I thank my colleague, Deputy Ahern, for allowing me to share time with him. I am extremely disappointed that those who criticised my party have not waited for a response. I did not want to speak about this tonight but if people want to stand here and criticise my party, scrapping the carbon tax would have allowed a €1 billion hole in the public finances. I am not sure what I would say to an elderly person who has made an SEAI application to retrofit their house or to get their house wrapped if I was a hypocrite and did not support the financial measures that have been implemented by the Government. Do not criticise my party and then not stay around to hear the reason we voted in support of the somewhat practical measures that were outlined. We do not support the carbon tax reduction Deputy Ahern spoke about. The protests we have seen in recent days reflect something very real. At the centre of this anger is the rising cost of fuel. It is the cost of simply getting to work, getting children to school and keeping daily life moving. There is deep frustration among the public and, as Deputy Ahern said, it is hardworking ordinary families who are put to the pin of their collars trying to make ends meet. PAYE workers and ordinary members of the public are being squeezed and for many there is no alternative. They have to drive and they are being asked to absorb costs they simply cannot afford. I also believe some of the language used by the Government last week was completely wrong. It did not fully grasp the depth of anger that exists. When people feel unheard, that frustration only grows. The Minister of State, Deputy Troy, said that the majority of those who were protesting were hardworking decent people and they absolutely were. However, we cannot condone some of what we saw during the protests and I do not believe it is appropriate to engage with self-appointed representatives who do not speak for the wider public. This situation should have been de-escalated long before it reached this point. The Government did not have to put our gardaí and Defence Forces into very difficult situations. I have great sympathy for them. They are members of those communities they had to go into and they found themselves in such difficult circumstances. We cannot ignore what is driving this. Families across this country are at breaking point. People are doing everything right and are still falling behind as the cost of fuel, groceries, energy and housing continue to rise faster than their incomes. That is where our focus must be. If we are serious about being constructive, we must bring forward real, costed solutions. Let us be honest, some people have been good at protesting and posting online but slow to offer any credible costed proposals. That is not good enough. Costed proposals must ensure we have targeted fuel supports for workers and rural families who have no alternative but to drive. It means targeted energy supports for PAYE workers. It means intervening when prices are spiralling, including in the cost of home heating oil. It means reducing energy costs and ensuring excessive profits are used to support households. Fuel may be the spark to these protests but this has exposed a deeper pressure on working families. People are looking for leadership, fairness and the chance to build a decent life through hard work. Our job is to listen and is to act and it is the Government's job to deliver.

I will not stand here and shout and have a back and forth because there has been far too much shouting this week already. There has been far too much chest beating and too many instances of people not listening, not engaging and of parties becoming so entrenched that we were at real risk last week of the country collapsing. I was so worried about where those protests were going to end up. I want to commend the work of An Garda Síochána. The work gardaí did across the country was incredible. They went in and spoke to the protesters. They had those discussions and the hard conversations and they managed to de-escalate a situation that unfortunately the Government had escalated to a huge degree during the previous days. What we needed was dialogue at that point and not dismissing people. We needed to show them a level of respect and to be prepared to listen. You do not necessarily have to agree with people. You do not have to like them. A lot of the values that were expressed by people on those protests were not values I would hold. However, as there are so many people who feel left behind in this country, there is a real risk that there is very much a fertile ground there for bad actors to come in and manipulate that and use it for their own political means and agenda. There is a real onus on and need for the Government to provide a leadership. I know things have changed. The structures of how we engage and how we dialogue have changed. There might be a need to look beyond the more traditional structures we have relied on to date. With the advent of social media, there is the ability to quickly put information out there and get people really wired up. It happens so quickly. One thing really struck me last week when I was driving and came across a blockade in County Wicklow. Two artic lorries blockaded the N11 and I would say there were maybe three of four tractors. There were probably only ten people at the blockade and it was a very stark image of how quickly and easily the country can be shut down. It did not necessarily need a lot of people. We have all had these discussions today and I ask that the Government takes them on board and listens because there is a much bigger issue at stake here than just dealing with the fuel protests. It was so interesting that people who would normally not align with or support protests of this kind were so supportive of them. I was really surprised when I was talking to people. The reason they supported these protests is that they could understand. They have felt it in their own lives. It was like these protests became an extension of what their lived experiences were and how they were struggling. The reason they were struggling may have been different and may not necessarily have been due to fuel costs but families are struggling and we have been trying to get that message across to the Government for years now. I do not think this issue has just popped up this week or last week. There has been this undercurrent of families who are finding it really difficult. We all know these families. They are in our constituencies. They are the ones who do not protest. They are the ones who do not shout. They are the ones who just take it all on board themselves but they are under huge pressure. It is those people I am worried about and who I feel are really being left behind. When we look at the facts when it comes to the different pressures, electricity costs are just skyrocketing. Unfortunately, we will see a lot more of that happening. The initial impact of this energy shock is on fuel, on the petrol and diesel pumps and on green diesel but in a number of months, it will move into gas prices and electricity prices. There are 315,000 people who are in arrears at the moment and who are struggling and trying to catch up with the problems we experienced after Ukraine. They are chasing their tails, and 8% of them have been in arrears for longer than 90 days. They are going to be unable to pull themselves out of that hole. That is why the Social Democrats have for a number of months been calling for a targeted energy credit of €400 for families and households that earn less than €70,000 in order to try to give those people a bit of breathing space. We are very clear in all our policies - they need to be targeted because we do not have an endless bucket of money and we do not know how long this crisis will go on for. It could go on for years. We need to protect our resources while protecting those struggling the most. We have a motion we will be bringing forward tomorrow which contains a proposal for an energy credit. I hope the Government will give it serious consideration. The other part of the proposal we will discuss tomorrow relates to solar. The Government tends to lurch from crisis to crisis. A crisis happens, people struggle, there is huge outcry, the Government has found money and given money out in untargeted measures such as the previous energy credits. That cost billions of euro. I think €100 million was given in credit to the electricity meters of holiday homes during the previous Dáil term. At that time, it was very much stated that this was an emergency measure and that we needed to get it out quickly, but there was no acknowledgment that we needed to change how we do things and ensure the systems, structures and infrastructure were in place to make us more resilient to these energy shocks, to make households, businesses and the country in general more resilient. That has not been done. A huge amount of money has been set aside for retrofitting. I understand why that is necessary, but it is costly. Many people are not able to afford it, and it is also very disruptive. We have seen studies that show that when people retrofit they do not necessarily cut their emissions or energy usage. It makes their homes more comfortable but does not really impact on spending on energy. I have asked the Minister previously to look at solar. You can get solar panels up on your home in a few hours. I left for work one morning at 8.30 a.m. and I got a message from my husband at 12 noon to say that we were completely off the grid; we were pulling in enough solar to run the house. It is so quick to do, relatively cheap compared with retrofitting and can be rolled out across every house. One million homes in this country are suitable for solar panels. Part of our solar for all plan is to expand the warmer homes scheme to include free solar panels for those at risk of energy poverty and double the grants for all other households. I ask the Minister to do that. The battery grant needs to be brought back in and plug-in solar needs to be looked at as well as more supports for businesses. They are simple measures but they are sustainable. They will help homes to be more resilient against future energy shocks.

This is a cost-of-living crisis that has been going on for almost five years. The lack of self-awareness on the part of the Government is really frustrating and disappointing. What we saw last week was an expression of how people are struggling. It was one section of society but so many people are struggling. At the time of the most recent budget, we in the Social Democrats put forward an alternative budget that included targeted measures but the Government ignored us. We put forward a proposal for an emergency cost-of-disability payment in March which was ignored by the Government. We put forward a proposal, and will bring it forward again tomorrow, for a targeted energy credit of €400 per home to help those with an income of €70,000 or under. The Government has ignored it. The Minister of State might understand why it is extremely frustrating for people across the country and for us here that the Government says it is listening, doing what it can, it hears us and is making changes. I just listed a number of targeted measures that would make a real difference to people's lives. Those measures are costed and the money is available to do them. Why is the Government not doing it? A targeted energy credit and an emergency cost-of-disability payment are two things the Government could do. I have racked my brain to understand why the Government is not doing it. Surely, as a Government, it wants to get re-elected and understands it has the money. I think it is a question of political priority. As a result of the budget, there was a €1,400 cut for disabled people. They effectively received a cut in the budget. It is vulnerable people who lose out and this Government has not and does not prioritise them. It is the same in the area of housing. I have made the point over and over and we have highlighted it. We are talking about a cost-of-living crisis. Imagine being evicted from your home. You cannot afford to get somewhere to rent so you go into emergency accommodation, which is an expense to the State. Young people are essentially having to emigrate because they cannot afford to rent, and this Government just stands by and says it is international issues, inflation hurts everyone and it can only do what is fiscally sustainable. Yet, it had no issue in giving over €1 billion in tax cuts to fast-food giants and the VAT cut to developers, investor landlords and funds in the budget - €1 billion each year will go to them yet when it comes to disabled people or children in poverty, the Government says it is not fiscally sustainable and we have to wait. This Government has its priorities all wrong. It is not listening to the people struggling in this cost-of-living crisis that has been going on for many years. We will continue to push for these measures and to push this Government until it listens and makes the changes needed.

People are at breaking point. They are struggling every day just to get by. Many of these people took to the streets last week to voice their concerns and engage in their democratic right to protest. What did the Government do? It vilified and threatened them. What kind of democratic republic are we living in when, instead of listening and engaging, our Government vilifies and threatens its citizens and treats them with contempt? It is simply despicable. The people of this country deserve better. They deserve a Government that listens to them, truly values them and works for the people and not against them. The citizens are crying out for help and to act instantly, not delay. I am getting hundreds of emails from my constituents. They are a cry for help. It is desperate and it is getting worse. We are dealing with a real issue and it is not getting any better. I will read out some of them. The first states: The prospect of owning our own home feels completely alien to use. It feels out of touch and out of reach. We are struggling. The both of us are working. I am a healthcare worker and my husband is in construction. We cannot afford to keep heating oil in our tank. We have two kids. What can we do? This is just the start. A third-year nurse also contacted me. She said, "I feel like I made the wrong decision to go back to nursing. I wish I went to Australia two years ago." Another one said: I got married last year. I have been working in a family-run business in the agricultural sector for the past 20 years. Myself and my wife both work full time to provide for our family - our two kids. Every week it is getting harder and harder. Neither of us smoke or drink. We do not go out socialising. We had to give up our pastime hobbies and we are constantly having to dip into our savings. There is no help. There is no future for us in Ireland. This is what they are saying. This is what is going on. People have given up hope. In Donegal, heating oil is used to heat 85% of homes. Over the past month, people have had to find an extra €700 which they simply cannot get. The oil has run out. They are sitting in damp homes. They are letting their kids go to bed holding hot water bottles and wearing extra layers. They are doing so in this day and age. Shame on the Government.

There are 320,000 people in this country who are in arrears with their energy bills because they just cannot pay them. We have about 700,000 people who are living in poverty, and we have hundreds of thousands of people - and this is what was expressed in the streets - who are absolutely crucified by a cost-of-living crisis that started before Trump's and Israel's disastrous war commenced. It was already crushing people and producing arrears, hardship and suffering. We can add to that the exorbitant rents and accommodation crisis leading young people to leave this country because they cannot afford to live here. Trump's war makes it even worse, and the Government throws crumbs to people that will make almost no difference. Compare what the Government has given in its total package with the headline "Irish tax relief on jet fuel for airlines operating here to hit €1bn this year". That was last November. A few commercial airlines get an exemption on excise of €1 billion. Profitable companies get more by a significant margin than all the tens of thousands of people who are being hammered with the fuel and energy increases that are crucifying them. It is the Government's priorities that are the problem. Trump and Israel have made this mess worse. Some of those who cheer them on should think seriously about that because this war is costing not just lives, it is also hitting people in their pockets. The Government has failed to protect people because it prioritises corporations that are making massive profits rather than struggling working people and households in this country.

The warnings from us on the Opposition benches were ignored. In the context of the protests in Laois that I attended, there were decent hard-working people who work 60 or 70 hours a week present. Truckers told me that they are losing €6,000 per month. They can only do that for a couple of months. The fact is that they could not get a week's wages and were sinking below the waterline. While the measures proposed may bring some relief, a lot of people, including commuters, have been left out. There are 12,000 people in Laois who commute out of the county to work. Many of them do so by car out of necessity. There are taxi drivers, home helps and public health nurses. There are 700,000 people who rely on home heating oil. Many rural households in Laois rely on home heating oil; the majority outside of Portlaoise. These are low- and middle-income families who are been crucified. They do not get the fuel allowance. They are not entitled to it. They are left out. This is on top of a cost-of-living crisis. There are 320,000 households that are in arrears with their electricity bills and 180,000 households that are in arrears on their gas bills. If we look rents in Laois, there are cases of more than €2,000 month being sought in rent. One family has childcare costs of €1,400 a month. School transport fees are up and leaving certificate fees are back and being levied. This is a very tough situation, and further measures are needed for people. A budget was introduced last October. In the budget before that, which was just before the general election, helicopter money was dropped out of the sky on top of people, including on top of us and those who did not need it. Developers, landlords, hoteliers, McDonald's, Supermac's and Starbucks were all looked after. What happened with ordinary workers? The tax bands were frozen. What happened as a consequence? Joe and Mary Soap who are paying tax and are registered workers are paying more tax than they did last year. Not alone did they not get zero, they are in reverse. That is not good enough. What the Government did in 2024 was cynical. Last year, following the election, the Government totally turned its back on ordinary working people. That cannot continue.

We have just seen very militant protests that were widely supported in society because of the acute nature of the cost-of-living crisis and the fact that people were supporting those who were having a go. A marker has been laid, and we need workers to do the same. In the couple of minutes I have, I want to highlight that there were some issues with these protests. It was noted by many people that some far-right individuals and far-right talking points emerged during the protests. There are some who should not have been let near a microphone, never mind allowed to crawl out from under the rocks they were under. Christopher Duffy, for example, used the words "F- around and find out" when Renée Good, a young woman in America, was shot dead by ICE, cheered on a rape threat against Greta Thunberg, used anti-migrant hate and is an out and out misogynist. He was involved in these protests from the outset. James Geoghegan has been widely reported as spreading anti-migrant hate. He is a tax defaulter and an animal abuser. He said the Government was bussing asylum seekers to vote in the elections in 2024. He is a climate denier. A councillor in Kildare, Tom McDonnell, said women need to breed more. That is his history. He is blaming this crisis on people in IPAS centres rather than Donald Trump and Netanyahu and the imperial adventures they are engaged in. Then there is reportedly a character, Michael McCarthy, who said that Hitler needs to be understood and that he was not all bad. He launched a GoFundMe to raise money for food and drink for the protesters. There is €150,000 in that fund, and a lot of people want to know how somebody like him was allowed to set up a GoFundMe. He has called for mass deportations. He is linked with the far-right and an organised far-right group. That GoFundMe needs to be taken down. Fascists such as Niall McConnell were interviewing some of these protesters. There is the whole issue of the far-right channels being used to promote the protests and far-right individuals controlling WhatsApp groups and pages, apparently, such as the Dublin fuel protest page. These are people who have absolutely nothing to do with rural contractors. One of them lives in Dublin 15. I know her. These people should not be allowed anywhere near a protest movement that wants popular support in society. We should call them out.

This is an arrogant Government. It has not listened and is not listening. It has not listened to representative organisations, the public, TDs or Opposition parties. Several motions for a cost-of-living package have been debated in the House. My Private Members' motion in December calling for price controls on electricity, gas, fuel and food was arrogantly voted down. The recent packages are too little and too late. White diesel now costs 36 cent more per litre than it did at the start of the illegal US and Israeli war. Green diesel is through the roof, heating oil has almost doubled and petrol is substantially higher. There is nothing in the package for PAYE workers. They have been abandoned. The Government could and should have introduced a much bigger package. The claim that it does not have the money does not wash. In budget 2025, which was introduced October 2024, the Government found €2.2 billion to buy the general election which took place seven weeks later. It also has a €20 billion rainy day fund. It is pouring rain now, and it is time to use the fund for a proper cost-of-living package. Government decisions which continue to make this country dependent on fossil fuels mean we are very badly affected by energy shocks such as that we are currently experiencing. Trump and the US-Israeli war in Iran are directly responsible for this fuel shock. The Government's failure and refusal to stand up to Donald Trump, that far-right unhinged madman in the White House, means that he has been emboldened and now believes he can do what he likes. He has threatened to wipe out a whole civilisation. He has engaged in a genocidal war on Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and Iran-----

I thank Deputy Healy.

-----and he has even attacked the Pope. It is time to stand up to him-----

I call Deputy Gogarty..

-----pass the occupied territories Bill and stop-----

Deputy Healy, resume your seat.

-----military planes going through Shannon.

Hear, hear.

I want to follow up on what Deputy Healy said. Our Government obviously has to maintain diplomatic relations with the Trump Administration, but we need to be a good bit stronger in highlighting this illegal war. In this Chamber in January, I asked the Government to do more in terms of the vile, oppressive theocracy in Iran and how it has stamped on its own people and executed so many. What Trump and Netanyahu have done will set cause of the freedom of the Iranian people back for a considerable period. They deserve a place in hell for that. I said in the earlier debate that those in government are not the devils in this issue, just as those in opposition are not the angels. Sometimes, we play politics and are populist. The Great Satan, as the Iranians would say, is Trump, because Trump is the one who caused this whole mess and put us into this crisis. We have seen fuel protests throughout Europe and elsewhere. We have to listen to our population and give them the help they need as quickly as possible. That is why the motion of no confidence arose. People were of the view that the pain they were feeling was not being responded to or not being responded to quickly enough. Maybe the Government should have gone out on some of the protests and engaged with people. I want to call out the fact, as others have said, that there were so many disorganised groupings involved. Some of them are far right. Some of them are conspiracy theorists, climate change deniers and Trump supporters. They have self-appointed leaders, including the one I mentioned earlier who said he did not care if a woman was raped. These are the nut jobs who were calling themselves the leaders of the people. We have to listen directly to the people and to respond to them and be seen to respond. Otherwise, these nut jobs will jump on any bandwagon and try to make hay while the sun shines.

I listened to Deputy Gogarty with interest, and he is right. There were, unfortunately, a lot of self-appointed leaders involved in protests. However, there were very decent people involved in the protests I attended. They tried their best to weed out those, I call them thugs, who try to get involved. They get involved in everything that is going on. They think they can save the world from their homes, but that is not usually the case. There is a lot of stuff we are going back over here today. In relation to home heating oil, there was no decrease in the home heating oil and people are suffering at present. Use of the word "heating" is becoming widespread in the context of the fact that there are 300,000 people who cannot pay their electricity bills. That is a major issue that has been constantly spoken about in here. Unfortunately, those who mentioned it were never listened to. It is a very serious issue. The Government should have moved on it. In relation to other issues, there are very small things like cancer clinics, although they are probably not small in some respects. A discussion took place on C103FM yesterday morning in relation to the success of the cancer clinic in west Cork, but the fuel crisis is hitting it hard. This is a voluntary service that takes cancer patients to and from parts of west Cork and other areas across the county into Cork city every day. Everything is organised to perfection, except for the costs. There needs to be a budget set aside for those people here too. I spoke to a plant hire person in the road building and building sector. They have all been exempted from this package that is being provided. They are all suffering. Someone who is in the plant hire business is out every day of the week with heavy machinery. That is something that needs to be looked at again. In relation to the fishing industry, we have two types of fishers. We have the inshore fishermen who are working most of the day. They have no choice but to use petrol. They have been speaking to me about how they have to use pump petrol. They do not get a rebate for pump petrol. They go up to the pump and fill the drums-----

They go and fill the drums and come back.

They fill the drums and put it into the boat and go out for the day and then go back and do the same thing. It is a continuous situation. I also then have those who are out there in the bigger trawlers throughout the country. I have correspondence from one of them. It states: Hi Michael, No word from our leaders. We have serious trouble with diesel. We have burned 2,500 in 24 hours. Our son was out on his last trip for 14 days. It cost him €31,000. It is not possible to keep going at that. We need help now, immediately, not in a month. We have 33 people working, all need money every week. This is the crisis in which people find themselves. They are paying bills left, right and centre. There are reliefs for some of these but people are not sure how to get their hands on them or whether it will be another month or another six or eight weeks. Some of these people are in trouble right now and need those reliefs this very minute. The Minister of State could throw back at me the fact that I did not support the package, but the reason was because the Government has tailored the carbon tax and all the increases in the carbon tax into it. I will never support anything that will hurt the Irish people. The Government has a programme scheduled whereby we can kick the can down the road until October and then hit people with a double, triple or quadruple increase. That is not the way to go. It is not a sign of a caring Government. It is a greedy, grabbing Government that wants projects and that maybe wants specialised projects. We have to look at projects. Some of the projects that can wait have to be sidelined, such as, maybe, the greenways and double cycleways. I was with Noel Thomas in Galway recently. Everyone in every house I visited in the housing estate there was livid about these double cycleways as opposed to single cycleways. They asked where the money is coming from and how we are spending that type of money. It is wasted money as far as they were concerned.

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. We need to look at sectors that have been left behind. On home heating oil, I know there were a good few proposals in relation to hydrotreated vegetable oil, HVO. The statistics I am hearing are that HVO would cut emissions by 90%, but there is still a lot of taxes on it. That needs to be looked at. There is nothing there for people right around the country who are using home heating oil. The other side, which was brought up earlier, relates to plant hire. The first thing that goes into every house is a digger and either a dump truck or a dump trailer. It relates to every part of that including all the ground works, the water, the sewers and the roads. The Minister of State knows it from his county. The big contractors are down there. There is a problem with the price of diesel for all those jobs and what they are priced at. Maybe there are clauses in some of those contracts with the councils or roads authorities but there are ordinary contractors who build houses and they are left out of this loop altogether. The second part, and I have talked about it a number of times, is that we still have lorry drivers who have, say, a quarry and who do not need the haulage licence. There was a fund brought in over €1.57 plus VAT in relation to a war emergency fund, but there is nothing in the rebate for them. They are as important as people bringing meal from a mill who have their own lorries. People do not need a haulage license to carry their own product. That sector seems to still be forgotten about. I ask the Minister of State to re-examine that.

The people of County Mayo and the rest of the country are desperate in terms of the costs of fuel. This Government has acted with complete impunity when it comes to accountability. First, it blamed the protesters. Then it blamed the media for covering the protesters and threatened an investigation. Then it blamed Trump. Earlier, I heard Ministers blaming international markets, international pricing structures, etc., but who made us reliant on international markets? It was the Government in terms of its policy. The previous Government, of which the Minister of State was a member, banned oil and gas exploration. It stripped away any ability for us to be energy independent. It created this dependency and then, when prices escalated, it blamed the dependency that it created. That is a fact. It is time that this Government accepted accountability, not just for the mishandling of the crisis but also for the situation in which we find ourselves in terms of our energy reliance. The fact is that the infrastructure for renewable energy, as the Minister of State well knows, is not there at the moment. In relation to the escalating costs, it was the previous Government's policy to actually drive up costs. The Government introduced the carbon tax. It was designed to drive the cost of energy. The Government did it in such a way that it was legislated for and baked in several years ago irrespective of the costs in the future. That is why the Minister of State's comments about carbon tax last week were tone deaf. The carbon tax was designed to try to move people away from fossil fuels. If you are a farmer in Mayo who is seeking to spread slurry or fertiliser, or cut silage, you do not have an alternative. The Minister of State should know that. This escalation of prices has unravelled the Government's policy on carbon tax and its desire for high energy costs. That is the truth of the matter. It is the Minister of State's desire and that of his Government. It is time that they wake up, accept it and change that policy because it is hurting rural Ireland and the Irish economy. Who knows where the cost of fuel is going to go over the next number of months and years? I opposed and voted against that Bill. The reason I did so was because I will not vote for a carbon tax into the future. It is wrong to penalise our Irish citizens who have no alternative. The taxation of fuel is incredibly excessive. The vast majority of what we pay is on Government taxation. Over the past ten years, the Government has taken in €35 billion. In 2020 alone, it took in €4 billion and that tax take is rising, year on year. The Minister of State made an argument for carbon tax but he should know that reliable and regular public transport does not exist in Mayo. If you want to commute from Ballyhaunis or Ballinrobe to Castlebar or Westport on a daily basis, you cannot do so. The Minister of State knows that. Is it right and just that the farmers, hauliers and contractors are, in the main, paying the carbon tax that is going, in many cases, to retrofits, etc.?

Thank you, Deputy Lawless.

We need to have a conversation on this. The Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, came out with a report recently that outlined there is a minimal difference-----

You should conclude, Deputy.

-----between an A-rated house and a G-rated house in terms of energy consumption and yet Fine Gael councillors in Mayo are seeking to spend-----

Deputy Lawless, you should conclude.

-----over €2 million on a council chamber. I heard a councillor last week justifying this-----

Shouting does not get you anywhere. The Deputy is over his time and should end. I call Deputy Callaghan.

I acknowledge on the record what people are feeling across the country right now. I understand that families are anxious. Older people are worried about heating their homes. Farmers and small businesses are watching costs rise, week by week. Their concerns are genuine and they deserve to be treated with seriousness, respect and empathy. The war in Iran has destabilised global energy markets. This is a reality that none of us in this House can change but what we can control is how we respond at home. The Government has responded with the largest and most comprehensive support package in the EU to help cushion the impact of the conflict in the Gulf. The fuel disruption we are seeing is a direct consequence of that war in Iran and the disruption of global supply routes. That is not something Ireland caused but it is something that this Government has acted in targeted ways, on a sector-by-sector basis, to help to offer some much-needed relief to the citizens of Ireland. To manage expectations, there is no government in the whole world that can insulate an entire country from the financial impact of a global war. This war is showing no signs of ending so we need to focus on longer-term thinking. That is why, as a backbench TD for Carlow-Kilkenny, I am asking, in particular, for the Government to look towards giving further relief to householders by providing a targeted emergency fuel allowance for people who do not currently benefit from the fuel allowance to assist in the increasing price of kerosene. I would like employers who have remote-capable roles allow people to stay at home and work from home, thereby easing the pressure on commuters. I would like an SEAI retrofit blitz for Carlow-Kilkenny and an expansion of Local Link, demand-responsive transport in rural areas with little or no bus service. Farmers, agricultural contractors and hauliers are paying higher diesel costs now so we need to ensure that the fuel subsidy support scheme that has been introduced will be paid out quickly. From speaking with the Minister, Deputy Heydon, I understand that will happen.

As others have said, the crisis and the knock-on cost of living, which has arisen because of variables completely outside of our control in this country, have brought us to this point. They have also brought us to the point where we have to collaborate and co-operate, and engage in serious problem solving across the Chamber to try to alleviate the stress, anxiety and financial pressure that everybody is under at this point. There has been criticism of tax breaks. I point out that excise duty on petrol is down by 36%. On diesel, it is down by 47.7%. On green diesel, it is down by 30.8%. Our overheads in northern Europe are not the equivalent of those in southern Europe. Wages, etc., differ by 30% to 50% so we are not comparing like with like. I welcome the pause on carbon tax but at this point, a full review of carbon tax and the proportionality of it and the apportionment of it is required. There are opportunities for us. There was an excellent conversation on EnergyCloud and the targeting of the surplus energy to those in fuel poverty, and I think that is a matter we must examine as a matter of urgency. Accountability and efficiency are required to achieve balanced budgets, going forward. We all have needs and demands. The people who have put us into the House have charged us with those. Whether in respect of education, special education or healthcare, we must remember that budgets are limits and not targets. While we want to give more to people, it has to be done in a balanced manner and with a view to the evolving needs. However, the situation we are in at the moment is an uncontrollable variable beyond this country. It has to be managed on a day-by-day basis to ensure the outcome for everybody.

I know where this motion comes from. People are under real pressure. Energy prices are too high and families and businesses in my constituency are contacting me daily. I will be clear about today's motion of confidence and why we need a functioning Government to bring in these measures. I heard people across the Chamber say that Independents have betrayed the people. Betraying the people would be political point-scoring for a few extra seats for a party and causing disarray in the Government at the time of highest geopolitical risk that has existed in my lifetime. We need a stable Government right now to bring in the financial supports that we brought in tonight. That was not relayed to the public. When I was on the phone to people who were asking me to vote no confidence in the Government, I told them that if the Government were to fall, it would be unable to bring in financial supports. That information was not relayed by political parties that were screaming for this. There would be no legislation or reform to our energy system. The private wire legislation, which is in the programme for Government and will help the Irish people, would not be able to progress. Every single solution we are discussing today would not be able to progress. Without a functioning Government, nothing would be happening. There would be no reform to infrastructure or to delivery. The people of Ireland would not benefit. Some people would say that Independents are lining their pockets, but we are not. We are benefiting our constituents and the people of Ireland by creating a stable Government that will benefit them. The decision I made today might be seen as bad by my constituents but they will know it was from the bottom of my heart and that I did it for the best reason to allow them to benefit from financial measures that will come in the coming weeks. We do not know where this current geopolitical situation will go. We must benefit the vulnerable and build a resilient system that protects Irish people and does not expose them. There is global instability with the conflict and the attacks on energy. We have seen what Trump and Netanyahu have done in the past two days, and it needs to be addressed.

At the fuel protests in Offaly, I was delighted to stand with my constituents, hard-working, decent people who have worked hard and are very frustrated. I met groups in Birr, Tullamore and Cloghan. Many self-employed people told me they just cannot keep going. Only today, I met a young businessperson who told me his business will be gone next week. This is shameful. The Government has neglected the working people of this country and squandered Irish taxpayers' money. When they want some of their own money back, they have to come, kicking, begging and screaming, for their own money and for assistance. What the Government has done is disgraceful. I do not understand it. We know that billions are being thrown at the asylum system. We know that €840 million went out in overseas aid. That was highlighted in budget 2026. It is disgraceful. Yet we have Irish people kicking, begging and screaming. People are in my offices every day of the week at absolute breaking point. I am ashamed of what the Government has done. I am glad to say I am not part of it. It has gone in the wrong direction entirely. It is squandering money where it should not be squandered. Let us look at the children's hospital, overseas aid or the asylum system where we have unvetted migrants coming into the country all the time. That is fact. The Government is squandering money. It needs to stop. The Government needs to stand up for the hardworking Irish people, the farmers, hauliers, agricultural contractors and small businesses. They should not have to come kicking and screaming for money. The Government needs to listen to them. Why was the Government not out meeting them? Why was the Taoiseach not out in Cork meeting his constituents? That would have been true leadership. I am absolutely appalled. I am here to stand up and serve my constituents in Offaly. This is certainly something that will never be forgotten. The Government will reap the benefit at the ballot box.

I stood here on 24 March when the Taoiseach and Government announced just 3 cent of a reduction in the cost of green diesel and 2 cent on kerosene. I begged the Government from where I am standing now to listen to me and to come in and address it the following week. I said if it had forgotten or did not understand, I was pleading with it to rectify it. It was allowed to carry on and it went from bad to worse when a Minister gave €40 million again to Ukraine in the middle of it. It was like throwing gallons of petrol on the fire because people are feeling the pinch like never before. There is a package and the Minister of State can listen to me or not but there will be another occasion like today and maybe more than that. In the package being given out, there is no mention of the cost of the diesel or doing anything about the diesel for construction machines that are involved in the building of houses, such as the high rise cranes, the diggers digging the foundations or putting in the services underground, whether they are mini-diggers or larger diggers. There is something, though not enough, for farmers and agricultural contractors but there is nothing at all for civil contractors. I am asking the Government not to ignore me and not to forget it because there is much consternation that it has not been addressed. I feel the reason it has not been addressed is that the Government kept a lot of people out of the talks who had things to say. There were plenty of rooms around Dáil Éireann for the Government to talk to them in and it just did not want to. Will the Government give the people down the country the feeling that the Dáil appreciates them, that they are wanted and needed and that they will be looked after properly because that has not been happening?

I welcome the package presented on Sunday and recognise we are living in unprecedented times. We simply cannot forecast where this is going or predict where it will end. When the first fuel package was released, the response to the agriculture sector was simply insufficient and an insult to a critical cornerstone of our economy. Many members of the agriculture sector were on their knees long before this fuel crisis. Will the Minister of State please reassure farmers, contractors, the haulage sector and the fishing industry that this package will be continually reviewed in light of the fluid and volatile situation in the Middle East? On the supports available, can he ensure there will be a simple, swift and effective claims process so our constituents will not be weighed down by additional paperwork and bureaucracy? We pride ourselves on the quality of our agrifood. We are known all over the world for the high standard of the food we produce. What about the producers, the farmers, fishermen and contractors? Are we supporting them enough and do we respect the work they do? Based on the conversations I have had with many in this sector, long before this fuel crisis, the answer to that question is "No". We need to act on this and we need to act swiftly. On home heating, I acknowledge there has been an expansion of the fuel allowance payment scheme but we need to do more.

I move amendment No. 1: To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following: "notes that the Government: — remains deeply concerned about the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and Gulf; — continues to seek de-escalation through dialogue and diplomacy so that these issues can be resolved; — recognises and understands the pressures that have arisen due to rising fuel costs as a result of war in Ukraine and the Middle East, on all families and businesses; — affirms that energy affordability is a priority for this Government, and highlights that successive Budgets have provided targeted support to help households with cost-of-living pressures; — remains committed to decarbonising our society, increasing investment in renewable energy sources, and using revenues raised to protect those most vulnerable to fuel poverty through targeted welfare interventions; recognises that: — carbon tax is a key pillar underpinning the Government's Climate Action Plan to halve emissions by 2030, and reach net zero no later than 2050; — analysis undertaken using SWITCH, the ESRI tax and benefit model, to simulate the impact of the carbon tax increase, and the compensatory welfare package estimates that the net impact of the combined measures is progressive and that half of households are better off due to the measures part-funded by additional carbon tax funds, with households in the bottom four income deciles benefitting the most; and — in the long run the best way to protect Ireland from the impact of international fossil fuel prices is to reduce our dependence on them, which will be achieved through the progressive decarbonisation of the Irish economy and society, and through the steps that will be taken to meet the Government's commitment to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050; further notes that the previous package of supports announced by Government on 24th March, included measures that: — reduced the Mineral Oil Tax applying to petrol, diesel and Marked Gas Oil (MGO) by 15, 20 and 3 cents, respectively, on a Value-Added Tax (VAT) inclusive basis, until 31st May, at a cost of €150 million; — reduced the National Oil Reserves Agency (NORA) levy by nearly 2 cents, at a cost of €20 million in income forgone to NORA; — reduced the cost of petrol, diesel and MGO at the pump by 17, 22 and 5 cents in total, on a VAT inclusive basis; — provided targeted relief to haulage and bus passenger operators, by increasing the maximum repayment allowable under the Diesel Rebate Scheme from 7.5 cent up to 12 cent per litre of diesel, for the first two quarters of 2026, at a cost of €10 million; and — extended the fuel allowance season by four weeks, to provide essential support to those most vulnerable to fuel poverty, at a cost of €70 million; highlights that newly introduced measures will extend the duration of the reduced mineral oil tax rates from the end of May until the end of July, and apply further reductions to these rates by, on a VAT inclusive basis, 10 cent per litre on petrol, 10 cent per litre on diesel and 2.4 cent per litre on MGO, at an estimated cost of €260 million; and furthermore, notes that the combined effect of the measures announced on 24th March, and on 12th April, are to: — reduce the cost of diesel by 32 cent; — reduce the cost of petrol by 27 cent; — reduce the cost of MGO by 7.4 cent; — postpone the increase in carbon tax scheduled for 1st May, until the Budget in October, at an estimated cost of €22 million; — enhance the Transport Support Schemes for all haulage operators, local link and school transport providers, and some commercial operators, at a monthly cost of €40 million; — introduce a Fuel Subsidy Support Scheme for farming and fisheries, at a cost of €100 million, to ensure that those most exposed to fuel price increases will receive meaningful assistance at the most critical time of year; — be a significant response to real pressures being felt here, and globally; — be one of the most comprehensive support packages in the European Union; and — directly help people impacted by this unprecedented global crisis in energy supply resulting from the war in the Middle East.". I acknowledge this is very real for people across the country. The pressures, stress and genuine financial strain arising from fuel costs are putting enormous pressure on households, businesses and key sectors. As a Mayo TD and a member of the Government, in recent days, I have met people across my constituency and beyond. Many other Members have also referenced those hardworking people. Certainly, I have listened carefully and respectfully to those who have expressed deep frustration publicly and privately. They are asking simple and legitimate questions, such as why the costs are rising so sharply and what the Government is doing in response. They have a right to ask these questions and they deserve straight answers. That is why we are here today to implement a number of financial resolutions but also to give some further detail. The fact remains that we are living in an unprecedented global energy crisis. This is not abstract. It is not theoretical and it did not happen somewhere else. It is real. It is immediate and it is being felt in every household and every sector of our economy. That is something many on the Opposition benches have failed to recognise tonight. We live in a small, open economy and we are particularly exposed to global price shocks, especially during periods of geopolitical instability. The volatility we are seeing in international fuel markets is driven by events far beyond the borders of Ireland. The ongoing conflict and instability in the gulf and the Middle East are a real result and no government anywhere can fully insulate citizens from the shocks and the scale of this crisis. It is also important to recognise that we need to be honest with people about these realities, what the Government can do and what this Government has done in response, in a way that is timely, proportionate, reasonable and fair. I welcome the opportunity to respond to the motion put forward by Sinn Féin this evening on fuel prices. It calls for maximum action to reduce costs and support workers, families and key sectors. Let us be clear. This is exactly what the Government has done. It has not ignored this problem. We have not delayed. We have not hidden behind slogans. We have acted decisively, responsibly and on the basis of the evidence put forward. In March, we introduced an initial €250 million package. That included targeted supports designed to shield the households and businesses most exposed to the rising energy and fuel costs. Importantly, we were clear at that point that the measures would be kept under constant review. We did not pretend that one intervention would be enough in a volatile and fast-moving, global environment. We have continuously monitored developments in international energy markets. In the past week we have seen, as a result of the escalating geopolitical instability, petrol prices have increased by approximately 4% to around €1.92 per litre. Diesel prices have also risen by approximately 12% to around €2.16 per litre. In response to those developments, the Government has acted again. We are now delivering a second package of supports costing more than €500 million, a substantial, comprehensive and far-reaching intervention. This package includes excise reductions on petrol, diesel and marked gas oil alongside targeted supports for the transport, farming, fishing and haulage sectors, which are the sectors that quite literally keep the country moving and functioning. These measures are practical, measurable and immediate in their impact. While they are targeted, they also provide relief right across society as a whole. This is not about choosing between households and businesses. It is about supporting both because both are under pressure and both are essential to a functioning economy. It is important to contrast this approach with what often is heard from the Opposition. Instead of slogans, the Government has taken a balanced, evidence-based approach. We are monitoring developments closely, we are engaging directly with affiliated sectors and we are responding, not once, but twice, with substantial and credible supports. This is what responsible government looks like. It is also important to be honest about the constraints within which we operate. The Government does not act in a vacuum. While we can determine national taxation policy, policy options concerning fuel support measures must comply with the EU legislative framework. That includes the energy tax directive, VAT rules and the state aid regulations. We are actively engaging with the European Commission to maximise the relief we can provide within these frameworks. That engagement matters and reflects the seriousness with which this Government approaches its responsibility - not promising what cannot be delivered, but delivering what we can, both lawfully and effectively. Let us be clear about where pressure at the pump comes from and the one core driver of fuel pressure inflation, that is, global international crude oil markets, which dictate the prices. It is not this House and not this Government. Pretending otherwise might be politically convenient for some but it does not help families who are trying to make ends meet. The public deserves honesty and not easy soundbites. Despite the global headwinds, Ireland is facing this period of uncertainty from a position of economic strength. Unemployment rates have remained below 5% for over four years, our economy continues to grow and we have run budget surpluses in recent years and expect to continue doing so over the medium term. That strength did not happen by accident. It is a result of careful economic management, disciplined public finances and responsible leadership. It is precisely because of that careful stewardship that we are able to act decisively now to support households, protect jobs and sustain critical sectors of our economy during a period of global disruption. However, we are also being honest with the public. No set of measures, no matter how extensive, can fully shield everyone from a global crisis of this magnitude. The longer international instability continues, the greater the pressure on inflation, growth and household incomes. The reality should not be denied and should not be politicised. Responsibility requires telling people the truth even when it is uncomfortable. At the same time, this crisis reinforces an important lesson for the future, namely, that we must reduce our dependency on fossil fuels and strengthen our own energy independence. That is why the Government remains committed to the transition to a decarbonised economy. We all recognise that reality. That transition takes time and we are in the process of that journey - we are not at the end of it, but we are getting there. In the meantime, there are sectors that remain heavily reliant on fossil fuels and they are particularly exposed to this crisis. That is why the Government is acting with targeted, temporary and proportionate measures to alleviate pressures now while continuing to invest in a more secure and sustainable energy future. I want to conclude by acknowledging the challenging and uncertain times we are living in. These are not easy times for households, businesses or the Government but leadership matters most when circumstances are difficult. The Government has acted and we will continue to act, not with rhetoric, but with delivery, not with populism, but with responsibility, and not with noise or instability, but with stability. For these reasons, I cannot accept this motion before the House and I instead present the Government's amendment. The motion ignores the facts, disregards the extensive actions already taken and offers no credible and costed alternative.

I will give the Minister of State the truth. The truth is that people are at breaking point and this Government is standing idly by, completely failing them. After a disastrous, stingy budget, families have been hit with soaring fuel prices. Filling the car or heating the home is simply unaffordable. This is not just pressure any more. We are at a crisis point now. When people took to the streets to say enough was enough, what did this Government do? It ignored them, it refused to listen to them and it looked down its nose at them. The Government also ignored the people who could not protest like the carers and people with disabilities. The Government gave a disastrous response. The Government threatened the use of the people's own army against them to show just how out of touch it was. Home heating oil is at a 30-year high. Families are dreading their oil tanks running dry because they cannot even afford a partial fill. Petrol and diesel are heading for record highs. Meanwhile, workers, families, farmers, fishers and small businesses are being squeezed to the limit. We know that Trump and Netanyahu's illegal war has caused this crisis in fuel prices but the truth is this is the Government in Ireland and it has a choice. It could give a decent cut to fuel costs, such as 25 cent off petrol and diesel, it could scrap excise on home heating oil and it could deliver real relief, but it will not. Instead, it sits on a massive surplus while our people are struggling to get by. Confidence in this Government is gone. I could not believe the number of phone calls my office got today from the most surprising people who were fuming with the Government. This motion is about standing with those people who have been ignored and left behind, including those who could not protest like the carers and people with disabilities. We have given the Government the solution and it should not forget whose money this is. This is the people's money and their taxes. What we are missing here is leadership. All that people can see is an arrogant Government that is completely out of touch with its people. I want people to stop misleading the Dáil. The Comptroller and Auditor General stated that carbon tax was not ring-fenced the way people were led to believe, yet we have TDs coming into this Chamber who are still talking about it as if it is ring-fenced. Sinn Féin knows the carbon tax is a sop. It is just another revenue stream when the Government could take real action and commence the mass retrofitting of homes, ensuring supports are fair and equitable for people who cannot afford the expensive retrofits. However, when we have TDs in here misleading the Dáil and not even knowing that the carbon tax is not ring-fenced, what hope do we have?

I do not think it is a radical statement to say that the duty of any government is to protect its most vulnerable citizens from severe shocks to the greatest extent possible. I genuinely do not believe in this case that that is what happened. Unsustainably high energy and fuel prices in the State have made a pre-existing cost-of-living crisis even worse. I believe that the Government further compounded its failure to its citizens by not reconvening the Dáil last week and not introducing emergency supports. I agree with the words of my union, SIPTU, leader, John King, when he said, "Despite the cost of these measures, they contain little to no relief for the vast majority of workers and households, who are left completely exposed to a cost-of-living crisis and mounting inflation." The question we ask here tonight is if this is fair? As we heard, home heating oil is the most expensive it has been in a generation. Petrol and diesel are on course to exceed the highest prices on record. Ordinary PAYE workers and their families are now bearing the brunt of the €500 million package but will see little benefit as their euro buys less food and other essential staples, like fuel and energy costs, continue to rise beyond their wages. The protest last week should be a wake up call but there is no sense that the Government is listening. As one woman said to me during the week, the Government says it is listening but does not seem to hear anything. That seems to be the problem. The Government says it is listening, but is it? Can it hear the pain people are going through? I agree with others that we must break the back of our dependency on fossil fuels by going all in on renewable energy but where is the just transition that was promised? Why are data centres that are sucking the national grid dry not being forced to introduce district heating systems? That is something that could be done. It would not cost the State anything. It is happening in one of the data centres in my area. Why are ordinary households paying more for energy than the data centres? Why are we turning off renewable energy at night-time when vulnerable citizens are freezing in the homes? Will the Minister of State answer these questions at some stage?

I was really proud during this past week to stand alongside so many sound people from Wexford and Wicklow - men, women and children - the finest of people who took to the roads out of sheer desperation in peaceful protest at a Government of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Independent TDs that simply was not listening to them. They demanded meaningful supports and real change. They got neither in the Chamber today. The Government survived but its days are numbered, judging by the anger on the street this evening. I met many of them outside. I have listened to many farmers, contractors, bus operators, taxi drivers, lorrymen, elderly people who cannot heat their homes, and couples commuting to Dublin every morning, of whom there are 6,500 from my area in the Wicklow-Wexford constituency. I have met many young lads on tractors who cannot make a living and may be driven out of this country. It is shameful that they would be robbed of a future in their own country while there is any amount of money available for data centre preferential policies. They get tens of millions of the people's money wasted on all sorts of pet projects while the people who need it cannot get it. The Government could have cut diesel and petrol prices by the maximum amount at the pumps as we proposed. It could have scrapped excise on home heating oil instead of leaving prices at double what they were before. It could have completely scrapped the carbon tax increase. It could have listened to all of these fine people struggling with the cost-of-living crisis, but it just did not do so. Obviously, Trump and Netanyahu's war on the Middle East has caused huge chaos for the Irish people, as well as the slaughter of people in the Middle East, but the Government compounded the problem. The fact that it is taking €40 when someone puts €60 of petrol or diesel into their car is compounding the problem hugely. During the week, nobody I met wanted to be out protesting on the roads. It was the Government's failure to act and listen to them that forced them into desperation. The Government showed huge arrogance, demeaned people and threatened to call in the Army, which was really shameful. We are approaching the anniversary of the Easter Rising on Friday week and it is worth remembering the famous Pearse quote. He wrote: Beware of the thing that is coming, beware of the risen people, Who shall take what ye would not give. I know whose side I am on. The Government won the vote in the Chamber today but the battle is only just beginning.

"Responsible" seems to have been the mantra from the other side all throughout the day as well as talk of how great those TDs all are but the Government did not read the room. It hid, it dithered and it ignored for months on end people who were trying to get it to listen to them about the hardships they were going through. The fuel issue last week was the straw that finally broke the poor camel's back. It certainly broke the back of the Minister of State earlier today. Years of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael incompetence and indifference have landed the whole of Ireland in an unenviable position of needing to flood the streets in rage in protest at what has not been done. Working people, families, and elderly and disabled people cannot afford to heat homes and gas up their vehicles while the Government grants data centres lower energy costs at a time of record profits for big oil and gas corporations. Trump's illegal war on Iran has exacerbated higher fuel prices and taxes, yet An Taoiseach remained silent on this despicable war and the chaos it imposed on the world when sitting face to face with that man. Trump's God complex may have had the Taoiseach in awe. However, more than this, the Government removed the cost-of-living supports and refused to bring prices under control. It voted down every Opposition proposal to help everyday people, including Sinn Féin's legislation a month ago to reduce the cost of petrol, diesel, including green diesel, and home heating oil. Now, when finally faced with the ire of the people and with the electorate awoken to its lack of governance, it brings forward insulting half measures that just do not cut it. It spends taxpayers' money slapping plasters on all of Ireland's problems rather than fixing the root causes. The country is unsettled and demands leadership. People are sending a very loud message that they reject the Government's feeble attempts to deflect, pat itself on the back - that is what I have heard all day - and to twist the narrative, especially when it comes to Sinn Féin and what we heard earlier about the carbon tax and the obfuscation on that. It is a display of ignorance, I would imagine.

Go raibh maith agat, Deputy.

The Government has lost the confidence of the people. Certainly, it lost the confidence of this side of the House a long time ago.

In accordance with Standing Order 85(2), the division is postponed until the weekly division time on Wednesday, 15 April 2026.