Pearse Doherty: Government Dithers as Fuel Prices Skyrocket

Go raibh maith agat deasg an Coirlea. Tánaiste, tae mid sa goírchaom cosas brosla nes le trí seartain an nuas agus níl a dhéanta aga do realtas hon caom saliar a lach u go fáil hon praise na aoislu. Níl gríoch a bhfain dhéanta agus agus taise bhfidh straithealte un brú leanna ó hen fféin agus an rath dearta tae tocha hon cinneogain, ac an anion sin níl a dhéanta agus go fáil. Agus ta graig ffíonní ag ffóileannst a bhfair. An níl a bhfain ta praise díosal méid i 8 cent an 9 litre, agus tae haraig mas gan ardeithaí tí 12 cent eile sa níl a mhaire. Tá méid i céd euro taca ar ale 6 tí le haillínnú an níl, agus tae haraig mas agus agus agsúil ardeithaí céd 50 euro i brísse a mhaire. Tánaiste, we're now in the third week of the fuel crisis and your government has still not taken a single concrete step to bring down prices. So let us be clear, you have not acted. You have been forced onto the back foot by sustained pressure from Sinn Féin, including the legislation we brought forward. But despite that, despite that, you've still done nothing. You could have acted at any point, but you chose not to. Instead you waited, you dithered and people paid the price. And Tánaiste, fuel prices aren't standing still. They are skyrocketing. Today alone the price of diesel has increased by 8 cent per litre and it is projected to rise a further 12 cent tomorrow night before VAT is even applied. Home heating oil has increased by 100 euro a fill today, with a projected increase of 120 euro expected tomorrow night. So while costs surge again, what is your message to ordinary people out there? What is the message from your government? Wait until Tuesday. Wait for another meeting. Wait while prices climb. Wait while families fall further behind. And we know what delay means in the real life, Tánaiste. A pensioner telling me, I'm sitting here with no heating for a week. I can't afford electricity and heat together. It's one or the other. Another person told us, we've just run out of oil. The minimum order has gone from 280 euro up to 600 euro. Another telling me, I'm living in a damp, mouldy house. I've arthritis. I need to keep warm, but I can't afford to put on the heating. Tánaiste, people are going cold in their own homes. And yet, unbelievably, your government is still pressing ahead with increasing the costs of home heating oil through higher carbon taxes in the next number of weeks. And don't come back in here with this guff about these taxes increase being necessary to fund retrofitting, because that's simply not true. The money is there. There's a multi-billion euro surplus. And if the banks were paying from their 3.6 billion euro profits they generated last year, if they were paying the 12.5% tax rate they should be paying instead of the effective tax rate of 1% that they are, there would be even more resources available. So let's be honest about this. This is not about necessity. It is about political choice. And the government is all over the place on this issue. Slow to act, reluctant to intervene, and telling people to wait while the bills spiral. So again, I'm going to ask you this question. Will you act, and will you act today, to reduce the cost of petrol, to reduce the cost of diesel, to reduce the cost of home heating oil, to scrap your planned increase on home heating oil, and support Sinn Féin's legislation? Or are you going to continue to send the same message as Costco out of control, wait for the government for another meeting, wait for the government to get their act together, wait for another week, and maybe we'll do something at that time, which we might tell you is on Tuesday or Wednesday or whenever. It'll be on Tuesday, I'll ask Ian Corlew. No Tuesday, Wednesday or whatever. There's quite a lot of clarity from government in relation to that. We intend to bring forward an appropriate intervention at our next cabinet meeting, which will be on Tuesday, and work is underway in relation to that right now. Only as recently as in the last hour or so, the Minister for Energy and Transport met with the Holyhres. The Irish Road Holyhres Association had a very good meeting, a very constructive meeting. They've outlined to him some of the challenges they're facing as a critical part of our economy, a critical part of our supply chains. We'll now work through some of those thoughts and proposals in the coming hours as well. The government is absolutely clear, that there's real pressure on families, there's real pressure on businesses, and people are feeling it. They're feeling it at the pump, absolutely. They're feeling it in the cost of a fill of oil. As I've confirmed last night, we are finalising what we believe to be an appropriate intervention for the areas in which there is the most acute pressure and challenge. I note in the Sinn Féin proposal, no talk of fuel allowance, which I think is rather interesting, when you actually have people most at risk of fuel poverty, really relying on that support as well. I do need to say to the House, there is significant international volatility. I was reading what the Italian government is considering doing today, and it's talking about just for 20 days. I tell you, this is because governments right around the world, and I presume oppositions, are not able to predict where this conflict in the Middle East and Gulf is going to bring the global economy. As I said last night, and I reiterate today, any measures that the government takes and takes next week need to fulfil two primary objectives. They need to be enabled to ensure that the assistance can be applied quickly, and secondly, that we ensure that we keep the space to adapt the response, should that be required in the weeks and the months ahead. Because we do need to be honest, there is very little certainty in terms of where this conflict will go, and what the economic impact could be, considering the length and depth of the conflict is such an important part of it as well. Now also, can I make this point? We've already taken a number of actions last Keankorla, because we've already increased the fuel allowance to €38 per week. This means fuel allowance is now worth €1,064 a year to households. We're also expanding it, so that more people can qualify. And just last week, thanks to Minister Kaliri's intervention, we expanded the fuel allowance to ensure that 50,000 families on the working family payment can benefit. That's 50,000 families this week who can benefit from fuel allowance. It was backdated to January, seeing many families getting lump sum payments of up to €380. They're real people, 50,000 of them that benefited. We now live in a country where over 470,000 households, or in other words, over a quarter of all homes in Ireland, now qualify for fuel allowance. We also reduced VAT on gas and electricity to 9% out to the end of the decade. We're supporting over half a million households, many of them pensioners, with an allowance of €420 or annually towards their gas and electricity bills under the household benefits payment as well. So it's not correct to say we're doing nothing. In fact, this year alone, we're spending over €486 million on fuel allowance, €317 million on the household benefits package, €640 million on the retrofitting. That's €1.5 billion just on those three measures alone. Now I heard your interview on radio this morning, and your answer to everything was, when you were asked where was all the money going to come from, sure, just take it out of the surplus. Now you know if you keep taking things out of the surplus, it becomes a deficit. I also heard you say that the state, quote, the state is actually making a fortune on this year. It's estimated that they took in €38 million in taxes in one week alone as a result of these fuel costs. You know, Deputy, that's an annual cost, not a weekly cost. Revenue estimates the cost is around €3 million a week as well. So accuracy is important, figures are important, getting this right is important, and that's exactly what this government intends to do. Deputy Doherty. While government dithers, the prices double. And what you've said here is no, it's cold comfort to people out on the streets, people who are going cold at this point in time because they can't afford to heat their homes. And I've put the prices on the record. You talk about waiting another week, into the fourth week of this crisis, that you'll come up with something, you'll reveal it all maybe on Tuesday. But people in the here and now are facing these prices right here, right now. Diesel went up €0.08 this morning. It is projected to go up €0.12 tomorrow night. Home heat and oil went up €100 this morning. It's already sky high. Another €100 and projected to go up another €120 tomorrow night. This is happening in real time. And you dither and you think people can wait for another week while you get your act together. People can't wait, they demand action now. And there is solutions that can be put forward. You can reduce the taxes on petrol, diesel and home heat and oil. You can do what we have set out in our legislation. This could happen right here, right now. We could bring a financial resolution before the House and tonight we could cut the costs of petrol, diesel and home heat and oil. But you refuse to do that. You say that you hear where people are at, but you refuse to act. And yes, we have the resources to do this. So I put it to you again, why do you delay while prices double on home heat and oil? Why do you dither when people are under so much pressure out there? And why will you not today introduce the measures that people the length and breadth of this state are crying out for? Action and leadership from government. Not more meetings, not more delay, not more dithering. Because we want to get it right. And a little bit of humility from the man who went to Morning Ireland this morning and got his figures out by €35 million a week wouldn't go astray. You quoted an annual figure. I mean you said that we took in €38 million in windfall last week. It's €3 million, Piers. That's not a couple of million, that's €35 million a week you were out on. So we're going to get this right. We're going to take it step-by-step. We're going to work with European counterparts. The Taoiseach is at the European Council now. Minister O'Brien has just finished a meeting with the Holyrood. Minister Kaliri is considering how we can assist those most in need. My department's economics team are trying to prevent the best macroeconomic analysis. The only place that you're dithering is where there's a Sinn Féin finance minister. You have powers in Northern Ireland to expand the fuel poverty funds. The only assistance, and it's a small bit of assistance, that's come from people in Northern Ireland so far has been from the British government. The Northern Ireland Executive, the Sinn Féin First Minister, the Sinn Féin Finance Minister, the Sinn Féin Economy Minister have brought forward exactly zero euro and zero cent in measures to help people in Northern Ireland. This government will act. We'll act in the here and now. We're finalising our proposals and we will work with people and support them in the time ahead.