Mary Lou McDonald demands immediate fuel tax cuts as prices soar

Minister, we're now two weeks into a crisis in which Irish households are being hammered by skyrocketing fuel prices. The cost of petrol, of diesel and of home heating oil has spun out of control and yet Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are absent. A do-nothing government sitting on your hands refusing to help while workers, families and motorists are fleeced. People are under massive pressure right here and right now but the Taoiseach says that it's too early to act. He says that government will keep this situation under review. My God, I've never heard anything quite so detached or disconnected. So I'll do the review for you right here and now Minister. In many places petrol's hitting two euro a litre, diesel hitting two euros and 17 cents a litre, home heating oil close to 900 euros for half a fill. Unaffordable crushing prices. So the question is how bad do things have to get before your government helps? How high do fuel prices have to go before you act? Because this is a very immediate crisis for working households right across the land and while your government dithers and delays we're hearing from people in real trouble. People afraid to turn on the heat. People who can't afford to fill up their cars. I spoke to one woman who said that she spent an hour just staring at the quote for her home heating oil and trying to figure out how she could pay for it and still have money for the food shop. A father who commutes a long distance to work already struggling to pay the rent and now worried how he'll keep the car on the road so that he can get to work. Households struggling with an unrelenting cost-of-living crisis and now this rapid increase in fuel prices only makes things far worse. And what's your response Minister? Well you say that you're monitoring the situation. It seems things aren't quite bad enough. You're waiting to see. How out of touch can you get? You see people can't wait as Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael twiddle your thumbs. They need you to act. Up to 65% of what people pay at the pumps goes to the government in taxes. The government holds in an estimated additional 38 million euro in taxes and levies due to these price hikes in just one week. So it's blindingly obvious what you need to do. Cut taxes on petrol, on diesel and home heating oil. This would immediately bring down prices and you could do this today. We moved the necessary legislation this afternoon. You just need to implement it. No more excuses, no more beating around the bush, no more delay. Because it's unacceptable for you to let another week go by without intervening to cut fuel prices. Máir tá tseoilí búilte ag a ddunna ag orde uilmhúire i ffraiseanne brosle. Tá Fianna Fáil agus Fine Gael as láthair ag díol tú cháirú ló. So cachaí an ríochas go níobhú anois chan ffraiseanne petrol, diesel agus uile chéasa tí a léidió. Minister, the choice is clear. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael can continue to sit back and allow households to be hammered or you can act today to immediately cut soaring fuel prices. Sinn Féin has put the legislation on the table to make this happen. It is ready to go. All you have to do is pick it up and implement it. Do it today, Minister, and ease some of the pressure that people are under. Minister O'Callaghan, please. Go raibh maith agat agus ta ceist ateachta, ach seoile ffraig ríomhaí bhfuathlaidh ma chagáirdeas ag a bhfuathlaidh le ráinte Aranach, le ráinte Aranach as éachtaí den sgáth a dhéanamhsíd ag an dair o seochtan le daoine. Thank you very much for your question, Deputy. Before I answer it, I just want to acknowledge the very considerable achievement by Irish young people over the weekend, and in particular, I want to commend and acknowledge the success, the outstanding achievement of Jessie Buckley in winning an Academy Award, which is a remarkable achievement for the young Kerry woman. I also want to acknowledge the role of the Irish rugby team in winning the Triple Crown. Deputy, you raise a very important point. I suppose at the heart of it, what it reveals is that once a war starts, people are unaware as to what the consequences of the war will be. We can now see, however, that the cost of oil has risen quite considerably, and a barrel of crude oil today is in the region of over $100 per barrel. That is a very significant consequence, and it's impacting consumers not just in Ireland, but throughout the world. As has been indicated by the Taoiseach in the United States, and indeed by the Tánaiste, the government will respond to this. However, what we're not going to do is engage in a knee-jerk response just for the purpose of being seen to do something immediately. Instead, the government will consider the situation, and what has been indicated by the Taoiseach is most probably we will look at the issue of excise duties for the purpose of cutting them to take pressure off consumers. But it's also important to note, Deputy, that any measures that are going to be introduced we hope will be targeted at individuals who need them the most. I have to say I was very pleased to see that Sinn Féin's finance minister, John O'Dowd in Northern Ireland, has adopted that position of the Irish government. I read yesterday that he said when Sinn Féin and government are going to introduce measures to alleviate the cost of fuel in Northern Ireland, that he said it will be targeted at those in most need. Similarly, that will be the case here. They will be targeted measures to ensure that those in most need are the ones who can recover from it. I notice what you say, Deputy, in your question. You don't mention the constant narrative of Sinn Féin, which is that we need to cut the carbon tax. I welcome the fact that you recognise the importance of the carbon tax staying as a constant measure to ensure that the very considerable expenses that are being met from the carbon tax continue. One thing is for certain. What the oil crisis reveals to us is that we need to ensure we reduce and hopefully end our dependency on Middle Eastern oil. The only way we're going to do that is by ensuring that Ireland becomes a fully renewable country in terms of being able to produce our own renewables. I'm not going to give you an answer here as to when measures are going to be introduced by the Irish government. But I can tell you that those deliberations are ongoing, just as they're ongoing in Northern Ireland with your own government, where you have the finance minister and, indeed, the Minister for the Economy. I want you to be aware, however, that my colleague, Minister O'Brien, asked the Energy Security Group to meet on 6 March to assess the implications of the conflict in the Middle East and the Gulf region. The group reviewed current supply and pricing conditions across oil, gas and electricity. I know that in recent days, Minister O'Brien wrote to retail, electricity and gas suppliers, as well as fuel suppliers, to emphasise the importance of reducing the exposure for Irish consumers from the price shocks created by geopolitical events. So I can assure you, Deputy MacDonald, that the Irish government will act, but we're not going to act simply to meet a deadline that's put in place by you or by others. We will come forward with a considered response. It will involve government meeting to discuss the nature of that response. And you'll be aware that when there was a war previously, we responded very positively from the point of view of the Irish consumer, and we will do so again. Well, the only actions that the Fianna Fáil Fine Gael government have set out so far are proposals to actually increase taxes. And you've reiterated that position again. I don't know if there's anybody sitting here amongst us who actually can't turn on their heating or can't fill their car. I don't think that's an experience anybody here on the government benches or anywhere else has. But that is the reality for too many families and for too many working people. And I am simply asking, and we have given you the mechanism to do it. We've given you the answer and we've given you the solution. The legislation will be moved this afternoon by Pearse Doherty. You simply have to lift this, and as an emergency and a necessary measure, cut the taxes on petrol, diesel and home heating oil. It's not a permanent measure, but it's a very necessary emergency measure. This policy of mañana, mañana, wait and see, wait and see, is a luxury that people in this House might enjoy, but it's not a luxury that working families have. So I want to appeal to you today, stop the distraction, end the rhetoric and actually make the move that's necessary, Minister. Deputy, you're in government in Northern Ireland. You have money to reduce the cost of fuel in Northern Ireland. Let your finance minister and your economy minister have done nothing about it as of yet. So it's a bit rich of you to criticise the Irish government for not acting fast enough when your own government has done nothing in respect of it in Northern Ireland. Can I tell you as well, people on the government benches are well aware of the consequences of rising fuel prices. That's why, after the invasion of Ukraine, measures were taken by the Irish government to assist consumers in respect of those rising prices. That's why the Taoiseach has indicated when he was in the United States that measures are being considered and it is likely that there will be measures introduced to alleviate the pressure upon Irish people at the petrol pump and in terms of at the heating oil level. We will decide it ourselves, Deputy. We will not decide it based on when Sinn Féin wants an answer from the government. Unlike yourselves, we'll give it consideration and we won't engage in knee-jerk reactions. And come back to us when Sinn Féin has done something in Northern Ireland.