The Taoiseach says he and his Government will implement another carbon tax on 1 May. People everywhere cannot believe that, notwithstanding the savage cost of fuel, that the Taoiseach would even consider raising it further. The Taoiseach knows it was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. This is the price that the country and the people of Ireland, young and old, have to pay so that the Taoiseach will have the continued support of the Green Party to remain Taoiseach.

The Government has already torn down Bord na Móna. Every day since then, the cost of electricity has gone up. The Taoiseach promised the people of north Kerry when he was canvassing there that he would support Shannon LNG, but now he is against it. Surely, the Taoiseach knows what is happening around the world. China is building massive electricity-generating stations. Russia is mining coal and oil. The USA is still using massive passenger eight-cylinder vehicles, such as Cadillacs, Lincoln Continental, Chevrolet, massive 5.7 l and 7.8 l eight-cylinder engines. Petrol is $3.80 a gallon there. Here, most people are driving 1.6 l and 2 l cars. Deputy Eamon Ryan is saying that we are still wrong. He wants to price us off the road.

The Government will break the country with it targets. Russia, China, India and Africa will keep doing what they are doing. They will do more harm to the environment in one year than Ireland would do in 1,000 years. The Government will close the country down. It will finish up exporting our youth, as happened in the 1950s and early 1960s. The true influence that the war is having on our energy costs has not been felt yet. Hauliers and construction are in serious trouble. Roadbridge has seen the loss of 1,000 jobs. It will have a ripple effect and many others are on the brink. Already ten construction companies have gone down in the UK. We will follow. If every light was turned off and we all left this country, it would only make 0.13% in the worldwide context. We are all under the one sky. The one sun and the one moon is over us all. The Government can cripple our people, cause the loss of thousands of jobs and can break the people, paralyse our farmers and curtail their ability to continue producing food. Nobody has calculated the cost of importing food from places like Brazil or what emissions this will create. It will certainly be more than a farmer in Kerry who is selling an animal to a factory in Bandon or selling over the over the counter in Killarney, Kenmare, Castleisland or indeed Macroom.

Deputy Eamon Ryan has been talking about solar energy for years, but we are still waiting for the power purchase agreements, PPAs, to be put in place for microgeneration schemes so that small energy producers can sell extra energy back to the grid. Farmers and industry have acres of farm buildings with roofs on which they could put these solar panels on top.

The Deputy is out of time.

That could give them a small bit of financial help to start them off. If they were paid for the extra energy, it would make a huge difference to relieve the energy crisis in this country.

We are over time.

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. We need balance and perspective in the debate. I fully accept that the cost-of-living increases are having a significant impact on people. These are caused by a war and caused by a pandemic. Without question, the pandemic and the war have caused extraordinary increase in energy prices globally. This is happening now all over the world, not because of the carbon tax or anything else like that, but because of the impact on the energy market, because of restrictions on fuel and because of the enormous uncertainty that has created. As a result, the Government did take measures to help hauliers. There were measures taken in tillage to assist farmers, as well as on the broader issue of reducing the excise duty etc. on the cost of fuel between 15 and 20 cent. These are very significant measures costing about €900 million, when including the medical cost reductions, the transport cost reductions, to €200 electricity cut etc. That is on the top of a budget of €1 billion that was given last October in tax for this year. Already, close to €2 billion in measures have been taken and it is only the beginning of April.

In, the bigger picture, the individual tax that the Deputy references is not at all as significant as people are endeavouring to portray it. We can take measures, as we took in the budget to offset that.

We have not closed Bord na Móna, which is enjoying a new lease of life-----

The Government closed it down.

The Taoiseach is only codding himself.

-----in wind energy, for example, and in other issues such as conservation and the preservation of bogs etc. I put it to the Deputy that we have to play our part as a country. The young people of this country want us to play a part.

0.31%.

Let the Taoiseach speak.

The implication of what the Deputy has said is that this country should ignore climate change, should let other countries deal with it, that we that should paddle our own canoe and to hell with the consequences and that we should play no part like. Ireland from the foundation of the State believes in the international community. We believe in a rules-based order. We believe in playing our part.

It is nothing to do with that.

Climate change is existential. I know that the Deputy does not agree with it. He denies that it is happening at all. I think that is his position which he has put forward in the House. I disagree with him. It is existential and we have a duty to the younger generations, to our children and to our children’s children not to stand still now, not to deflect and not to postpone. We do not have a choice. It is now or it is never.

Eamon will not let you.

It is nothing to do with Deputy Eamon Ryan. It is nothing to do with the Greens.

It has everything to do with Deputy Eamon Ryan.

It is to do with the Taoiseach.

It should be the concern of every Deputy in this House and of every Senator.

He is keeping the Taoiseach in government.

It should be the concern of everybody.

I thank the Taoiseach.

We must act to protect this planet for our children and our children's children.

They will be dead.

That is what should matter in this House.

Deputy Danny Healy-Rae has one minute.

Yes, it is political. It is to keep the Taoiseach in power until the end of the year and to make him Tánaiste next year and to keep the Ministers behind in place. That is what it is. The tail is wagging the dog. The dogs in the street see and know that. The Taoiseach has not answered or explained what is going on in Russia, China or the US. They are using massive amounts of oil, diesel, coal and everything else.

The Government would not let us cut a sod of turf here if it could do so. There are drains cut across the passages into the bogs in the midlands in order that the locals there cannot cut turf this year. The Taoiseach knows that.

I do not.

He does know it because Bord na Móna has done it under instruction from someone. The Government is not being fair with the people. It will close the country down at the behest of the Minister for the Environment, Climate Change and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan. It is the Minister who is dictating the policy. I know there are good and fair-minded people in Fianna Fáil and in the other parties. The Taoiseach is not listening to them, however. He is listening to one man, namely, the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and following him. The Taoiseach knows the answer he will get at the doors the next time around because the Minister is totally and absolutely wrong. He does not understand the trouble the people of the country are in at present and nor does the Taoiseach.

I must point out to the Deputy that prior to the formation of this Government, the Oireachtas committee of all parties was in favour by a vast majority, first of all, of taking very strong measures in relation to climate change. Deputy Danny Healy-Rae is in a very small minority-----

There were climate changes from the very start.

-----of people who believe that climate change is not happening.

He is also in a very small minority in this House who believe we should do nothing about it and just let China or the United States do it, and that we should paddle on. I do not agree with him.

We have always played our part. We are playing more than our part now.

We are not playing our part right now. We are not doing enough in terms of climate change. We are behind. Carbon emissions are increasing.

It is easy to put on a carbon tax. That is all the Government is doing.

The challenges we face between now and 2030 are significant. I am trying to be honest here. Let us not pretend that we are doing something extra or better than others.

We have to step up to the plate. We did not do enough in the past-----

The Taoiseach does whatever the Minister tells him to do.

-----in respect of climate change. There are win-wins here. The Central Bank of Ireland said there will be 88,000 extra jobs. Deputy Danny Healy-Rae talks about closing the country; a doomsday scenario. For God's sake, during the pandemic, we took measures-----

The Taoiseach is trying his best.

-----that rescued this economy and put it on the pathway to a dramatic recovery.

He is trying his best.

We want to do the same now in the context of this war-----

The Taoiseach threw out money in that context.

I thank the Taoiseach. We are over time.

-----in order to respond intelligently and sensibly to enable us to protect jobs and the economy, but, above all, to protect the quality of life of younger generations yet to come.