Speeches: 28 August 2026

Your government has money aplenty, but no vision.

An error. It's a pathetic admission about the failure of the government policy to actually address an entirely predictable situation in terms of petrol prices, the cost of living and you don't even want to discuss it.

Protests cause the reconvening of the Dáil and protests are the way to get real relief for working people and that's why we'll be mobilizing for the 19th of September to put pressure on this government to take serious action on the cost of living crisis.

There should be solar panels on every house, every industrial premises, every school and every shed in Ireland.

To be clear, why we are here today is to ensure that excise increases on petrol and diesel do not go ahead next week or in October.

This is not a cost of living strategy, it is a desperate approach from a government with no vision and no ambition.

This is a necessity, it's something that we need, and I would ask you to continue to support it as required as we see such volatility.

It's very unfair to the people of this country, people that can't pay their energy bills, the people that are pulling up to the filling station can't pay their fuel.

One in four parents are already borrowing to put their kids into school this week.

Not a single cent on petrol and diesel on additional taxes while these prices remain high.

We're sending a fortune abroad when we have the potential to be net energy exporters but to be honest there's more energy in a flashlight at an electric picnic than in this tired government right now.

The decision taken by government this week provides certainty for September, certainty for October. It provides breathing space for families and for businesses.

We pay too much tax and excise on the fuel that is used.

So I'm asking you today, not just this temporary stay of execution, but scrap the increases in relation to fuel during this extraordinary difficult time for families, while the cost of a barrel of fuel is rising exponentially.

This is just unacceptable, we've been shut down for six weeks, people out there are absolutely struggling, they need absolute clarity that you're not going to introduce you know these excise charges again as you plan.

And people need to know definitively that while fuel prices soar, government will not pile on further tax increases when people are struggling.

The only reason that we are here today is because the government is scared of widespread protests about the cost of living crisis.

The cost of living crisis is causing huge pressure for households around the country and this government has shown contempt and disdain for those households by only giving the absolute bare minimum of 60 minutes here for this to be discussed and scrutinised.

It's not the cost of fuel that's the problem at the moment, it's the cost of tax.

This is a sticking plaster over a broken leg.

The government is tax-gouging the people of Ireland.

Government will continue to support people when they need it but that support must be delivered in a way that is prudent, sustainable and responsible.

People have been abandoned.