Robert Troy: Why Ireland Cannot Tax Away Fuel Hikes

I'd like to thank all the deputies for their contributions today and again to join in the congratulations to my colleague. It's a great honour to be elected at any stage but I suppose particularly pleased to be re-elected during the by-election and best wishes for the remainder of this term. I want to start off by saying from my part and certainly I don't believe anyone in government is patting ourselves in the back. What we're doing is acknowledging and outlining the measures that we have introduced in response to what is a global issue and the one thing we can all agree on is the need to continually monitor our response to this international high energy costs and that's something we said at the very beginning when the first set of schemes or savings or supports was introduced was this would be kept under constant review and we would revisit it if it was needed and that we did and that we did. But it is also right and proper to say and some in opposition will say that but all won't that it is not possible to offset all of the recent market-driven fuel price increases using the tax system. I think it's fair to say that these measures together with the non-tax supports introduced by government will provide significant mitigation supporting those who are experiencing the most acute impact of decrease increases in fuel prices. The total estimated costs of the support packages the government has introduced is over 750 million euro making Ireland's support package one of the largest in Europe on a per capita basis. The one thing I'd say to the members opposite is I recently travelled to Belfast at a very productive meeting with your party colleague Minister O'Dowd and he too acknowledges the real challenges in trying to protect every single person and wouldn't claim to be able to do it either. Now I will say what we spoke about primarily was financial literacy, credit unions and the promotion of the financial services and how we can work together. But he was fair in his acknowledgement in terms of the challenges all governments have and each of us across the various political parties are whether talking to our sister parties in Europe or whether it's when you travel as part of your membership of the multilateral fora every single government throughout this globe is facing huge challenges in terms of bringing in supports and it is not possible despite how you portray it to absolve and mitigate against all the effects of the huge energy increases. Debra D. Doherty raised concerns with regard to the diesel rebate scheme and cash flow issues for recipients. Government is cognizant of the current difficulties being faced by licensed operators and I would like to highlight the diesel rate rebate scheme will provide much needed cash flow to the sector and confirm that revenue has reviewed their internal processes and has identified several IT solutions which are to be implemented to issue refunds faster to compliant taxpayers. It were also critical the fact that reductions applied to diesel and petrol were also applied to aviation fuels. As the deputy will be aware because to be fair he's competent in his job a taxation of energy products in Ireland is governed by the EU energy tax directive. This directive prescribes minimum rates for fuels and fuel uses. The directive prescribes that in addition to adhering to minimum rates the excess duty rate on particular fuel types used for propellant purposes must be consistent across all propellant uses for that fuel. This means that the same mineral oil tax rate must apply to heavy oil whether used as a propellant in motor vehicles, in aircraft or in waterborne vehicles. Ireland has no discretion in this regard as we are simply adhering to EU law and as we must. But of course the facts don't support your narrative and you're portraying a different issue like we made some conscious decision to say we're going to exclude private jet. It's not factual it can't be done you know it you know it but you want to portray your narrative and you want to be able to stick it up on Facebook later on this evening. That's the point that's that's the point that's the point. You also call for tar for carbon tax to be further reduced for kerosene as well as further reductions in the mineral tax oils for other fuels. The government has deferred the planned increase in carbon tax scheduled for the first of May until October. This will impact green diesel, non-propellant fuels such as kerosene heat and oil, natural gas and solid fuels. And a point I want to make a number of people made that they were aware of old age pensioners who were going cold because they simply had no money for fuel. That shouldn't be happening anywhere in any constituency and we're all constituency operators and we all are acutely aware the exceptional needs payment that is available to people. And for a deputy to get up and say he was aware of three old age pensioners I would ask him why he didn't assist that person to go to the community welfare officer and ensure that they can get. Well he didn't claim he did. So I would. In relation to the carbon fuels or the carbon tax and what people said about no concrete measures being taken to reduce the long-term costs of energy on people. The deep retrofitting of houses is making sure that people who are in receipt of fuel allowance more likely to be susceptible to fuel poverty. The deep retrofitting of those houses ensures that their energy costs are kept lower in the longer term. In 2025, 469 million was spent on retrofitting homes. They're permanent measures. And I see firsthand in my constituency and other people I'm sure sees it also. 140 million spent on acreage and 99 million on fuel allowance. And fuel allowance is a measure that was increased in this budget in the most recent measures. It was increased in the previous budget. Income eligibility criteria was increased. People on the working family payment can now avail of it. That's 470,000 people getting additional measures targeted measures for people at most need of support for fuel poverty. But I would say in relation to a number of deputies, Deputy Devlin, Deputy McGuinness, Deputy Braveson, Deputy Coyne, all made the point that this upcoming budget does need to ensure that workers are protected. That workers are supported. That there is a package of measures that rewards people who get up every day, go out and work, and they can feel the benefits of doing so. And I would be very, very confident that that will happen in this budget. I have to say Deputy Nash made the point that the generation of the generation of resources and how we redistribute resources is very important. And he is right. Budget 26 was about protecting jobs. He's critical of the VAT reduction, something that those in the opposition supported. I think perhaps it would have been better if it was more targeted at the smaller micro enterprises. But that being said, there's 190,000 people working in the hospitality industry and 75 percent of those are in businesses with less than 10 people. That's about protecting jobs. We invested in services and the largest ever investment in the most recent budget in terms of the provision of housing. First home scheme, shared equity scheme, supporting people into home ownership, something I think we can all agree on. I'll finish with one point and Deputy Healey-Ray just to make his point. You're right in relation to SAI grants. We should be doing more because anyone who applies for them, when you tell them there's an 18 month to 24 month waiting list, they're bitterly disappointed because they see what is the benefit of their friend's house and they want it. And they want it faster and I think we need to work towards that. The overseas aid budget. Deputy Nolan portrayed it like if we didn't give anything to overseas aid we would have no challenge in society in Ireland today. I'm proud as a developed country that we spend only points, I'd like to spend more, but we're spending 0.56 of a percent, just over half a percent of our gross national income on humanitarian supports, malnutritioned women, malnutritioned children across the globe and helping to build communities in the developing world. I think that's a good thing to do and to try and sow division in terms of if we didn't do that we would be able to answer all our problems, I think is distasteful and wrong.