Paul Murphy: Two cents off oil is not enough

Thanks Ciann Comhairle. This is a mean government. We knew it was a mean government already because we saw the last budget, which was a giveaway budget for the developers, it was a giveaway budget for Google, it was a big giveaway budget for the fast-food giants, but it took money out of the pockets of ordinary people and it targeted disabled people in particular with swinging mean cuts of over 1,400 euros. So we knew it was a mean government already and we had that in our mind when we were thinking what's the government going to do when under massive public pressure to do something to protect people from the renewed cost-of-living crisis. But I have to say looking at this proposal, this measure in particular, it's hard to imagine something meaner. I mean you've a crisis out there, something close to one in five households use home heating oil. Home heating oil has gone through the roof, almost doubled in price. Many people are at a stage of needing to fill their oil after we've been through the winter, they obviously still need to use their heating at this stage and the government in response to this surge in oil prices caused by Trump and Israel's imperialist wars in the Middle East, the response is what? To give two cents a litre off. Two cents a litre that will then be wiped away in what a month and a half by an increase in the in the carbon tax. I mean it's hard to imagine something more mean, more inadequate. Two cents a litre. So for a full fill of your home heating oil, 20 euros. Instead of paying to 2,000, the guts of 2,000 euros you might pay 1,980 euros. You get 20 euros off. I mean it's just I don't really know why you're you're bothering. It's so utterly inadequate in terms of resolving the crisis that people face. We know and this is the whole point, people we've entered into a new cost of living crisis that has come on the back of an existing cost of living crisis. We know the impact of that. We know four in ten parents are either not eating, they're passing up meals or they're reducing their portion sizes so their kids can eat. Incredible. In one of the richest countries in the world in 2026. We know that over 40% of renters are in poverty or at risk of poverty. And we know that over 300,000 people are in energy arrears. But how does that all translate into people who are using home heating oil? Because you can't go into arrears on home heating oil. They're not going to fill your tank and then you say you'll pay them later. You have to pay them in order to get the home heating oil. So what does that mean for people who rely on home heating oil? What all of that means is people don't fill up their tank and they don't heat their home. It means people in 2026 living in cold homes. Struggling to get by in cold homes. Predominantly poorer people. Predominantly older people. At this time when the government has a massive budget surplus and refuses to use it to protect people. Incredible. And it obviously stands in stark contrast to what went through last night in terms of the haul years. Where what you did was backdate it to the 1st of January. Forward dated it to the start of July. To the end of June. When any of the measures you're talking about for ordinary households, they're all ending much much sooner than that. None of them are being backdated. And fundamentally what does it come down to? Why is the government taking this approach? Two reasons. One is government represents those who profit from the various crises that we're seeing. From the housing crisis, from the cost of living crisis, health crises. That's fundamentally who they represent. But two, they're tied to the idea of the market. We cannot use the massive financial resources that we have to protect people because that would mean intervening in and interfering with the market. But the market, the fossil fuel market, our reliance on fossil fuels that the government is responsible for keeping us so reliant on, is precisely not working for ordinary people. Now is the time to interfere with the market in a major way to protect people. I mean the answer here is so clear. It's in our bill that we introduced what two years ago at this stage to have price controls. On this issue of home heating oil, in our bill, a euro a litre price cap on home heating oil. In terms of petrol and diesel, 175. In terms of electricity units, 25 cent. Gas, 8 cent. That's the answer. Combined with given energy credits to people, paid for by the data centres, targeted measures for disabled people, for people on fuel allowance, for people on social protection payments. But the core of it is to say we're going to set the price and we're going to give people certainty. And then we ensure that that price is met and that the flow of petrol and diesel and home heating oil continues by doing two crucial things. One, empowering the CRU to stop profiteering. To ensure there is not profiteering taking place. That people aren't taking advantage of this crisis as they took advantage of the last crisis. And two, adjust fuel taxes accordingly to ensure that fuel can continue to be supplied. That's the answer. That's what would give people certainty at this moment. The other things that we need to do, just briefly, is obviously to get away from our reliance on fossil fuels. And again, yes, there is longer-term things there in terms of, please stop allowing more and more data centres. Please don't have Neil Martin going to Donald Trump and the US and saying data centres are our priority when it's come out. There's less than 2,000 people employed in data centres using more electricity than all the homes in the state combined. Let's have state investment in renewable energy. Let's have a renationalisation of the energy system to give people affordable electricity and to have a rapid transition. But there's immediate, immediate things that could happen. We have been calling for a long time for free, frequent public transport. You might not be able to, at the drop of a hat, get the frequent or get the expanded that we're calling for. Although there are buses and storage that could be brought out. But what you can have immediately, you could have immediately have free public transport. Or at the very least, if you won't do that, 50% cut in public transport fares. People are struggling, they're struggling to put money in there, to get the money to put the petrol or diesel into their car to get to work. Give them the option of getting on public transport at a significantly reduced rate, which would also create the habit of, okay, I can go on public transport. These are the kind of measures that we need to have immediately to break our reliance on fossil fuels.