Carol Nolan: Bill Gives Short-Term Relief, Not Solutions

As an independent TD for Offaly, I have consistently highlighted the intolerable burden of high energy and fuel costs on families, farmers and all ears across my constituency. This Bill I accept does seek to provide some temporary relief in that it increases the diesel rebate scheme cap to €120 per 1,000 litres for qualifying road transport operators until the middle of this year. It also implements cuts to mineral oil tax rates on petrol, auto, diesel and other fuels until July, while postponing further carbon component increases until October. But these steps are not enough and they offer modest short-term respite. What we need is a long-term strategy in order to protect our businesses and safeguard tens of thousands of jobs, particularly in rural areas where we do have haulage companies and agri-contractors. That's what I'm concerned about. I feel that these steps represent a wholly inadequate response to a deep and sustained crisis. I stood with agri-contractors and hauliers and construction workers on the lines in my own constituency during the protests. What I found remarkable was that there's a lack of acknowledgement of the struggles that businesses face in this country. What really strikes me as very, very concerning is the fact that I've seen businesses going to the wall in my own constituency of Offaly, but I've never heard of one NGO going to the wall in this country. We have 34,000 NGOs. Let's face it, they're not known for creating employment and they're certainly not known for creating tens of thousands of jobs in rural counties like Offaly and yet we have a situation where 34,000 NGOs, 34,000, where there's massive duplication and we could have the same categories of NGOs over and over again and we have paid out 6.2 billion of taxpayers money last year. I haven't heard of any of them going to the wall, but I have heard of agri-contractors and small businesses in my own constituency going to the wall and I have heard of job losses and I think this is shameful and what I'm asking government to do is reflect on their policy position. When it comes to NGOs and when it comes to overseas aid, you seem to have shifted too far to the left. They're left-wing policies, it's crazy and you've abandoned businesses. I mean all we have to do is look at overseas aid. There's five countries on the watchdog list for human rights abuses and what did you do in the last budget? You decided to pay them 840 million euro in overseas aid of taxpayers money. Some of those countries incredibly include Afghanistan, Sudan and North Korea. So we have the Irish taxpayer paying overseas aid to North Korea and Afghanistan, meanwhile our own businesses go to the wall, meanwhile 34,000 NGOs get 6.2 billion of taxpayers money and that's not to mention the sham of the asylum system, the absolute sham and the money that's handed out in terms of social welfare payments. We need to put Irish citizens first, we need to put our own businesses first here and there needs to be a proper focus and I think you need to move back from your left-wing policies because I can see it shifting far and far to the left. All you have to do is just look at your position on NGOs and look at the position on paying countries with appalling human rights records, appalling human rights and you're handing out our taxpayers money to that, that sort of thing. It's crazy. As I say I have stood with many businesses in my own constituency and they tell me that they're crippled with costs, diesel costs, VAT costs, tolls, auto enrollment costs, energy costs, regulatory costs and input costs for farmers. It's just crazy, it goes on and on. Then we have rural households who continue to face some of Europe's highest energy prices, while small peat producers and turf users in the Midlands, in counties like my own county Offaly, are penalized by policies that ignore basic realities and ignore common sense and yet you've nothing to say about that. You've nothing to say that in the event of an energy crisis that people should not be allowed to cut their turf. Yes they should, yes they should because you're bowing down to your EU masters all the time. It seems that your policy is to appease your EU masters and forget the Irish citizens and forget people in County Offaly who depend on solid fuel. It's to throw caution to the wind and forget those people and ignore them. I have repeatedly criticized government's misplaced priorities, directing vast sums of money where it shouldn't be going. Asylum accommodation, social welfare payments, far too generous, it's acting as a pull factor, bringing in people that we don't want on this island and all we have to look at is what happened in Belfast. Do we want that down here? No we don't, we don't want that on any part of our island. So it's high time you got your act together and clamp down and cut the social welfare payments for people who are not genuine asylum seekers and treat the Irish taxpayer with respect. Because what's happening here is contrary to what the previous Fine Gael Taoiseach said about people getting up early in the morning, you know, getting fair play, they're not. People who get up early in the morning are being punished in this country. Tax upon tax on workers, on working people, that's where you're hitting them and yet you squander money and you pay into the sham, the whole sham of the asylum seeker accommodation. We don't have vetting of the people coming in and then we don't have vetting of the cowboys and chancellors providing the accommodation either. It's an absolute sham and I'm going to continue to call it out because I think that as Irish citizens we need to stand up and I'm listening to what people are saying to me. That's my job as a politician in here. I serve the interests of Ireland only and that's why I'm bringing it here again today. You need to look at your policies, gone too far left altogether. I mean it's it's just crazy what's going on. I have constituents at absolute breaking point. I've had people in my office very very upset, working people who are trying to make ends meet, put their children through college and instead of being helped they're getting taxed and punished. We must deliver permanent and meaningful tax reductions on fuel and energy and the USC which was meant to be a temporary measure must be abolished. We have to help working people here. Our own interests should always come first. Suspend punitive carbon charges for rural Ireland. I'm glad to say that I was one of the 12 that voted against the climate action bill. I recognised at the time that it wasn't good and I remain opposed to the carbon tax. We need to support our local fuel and peat producers and place the needs of Irish citizens first and I say that again. This bill is a small concession but it falls very short of the decisive action and long-term action that Ireland demands. We need an end to the squandering of Irish taxpayers money. We need an end to the crazy amounts of money going into NGOs and we need to support our businesses and our working families in this country. Go raibh maith agat.