A key driver of inflation is the cost of fuel. It feeds into absolutely everything. It is true to say that the issue is EU-wide and that the war in Ukraine has contributed to the problem, but we have our own fiscal tools that we can deploy here to bring inflation under control. The truth is that every country is dealing with the war. However, not every country is like Ireland. We are unique, we are an island and we have almost full employment. Yet, we have not taken one measure to deal with costs. The economist David McWilliams has said that we need extraordinary measures in extraordinary times, and we must control the controllables. He said we need to take away the excise on fuel and reduce inflation accordingly.

The Government has instead added tax by increasing the carbon tax, but I do not care what the tax is called. It can be called the carbon tax, the National Oil Reserves Agency, NORA, levy or excise. It is tax. Remove it. The tax is causing cost-push inflation and we are getting into a spiral of demand-pull inflation. The Minister is not solving the problem. The proposal to reduce inflation through this measure is a realistic one. Fuel is the lowest common denominator of any economy and even more so in Ireland as we are an island dependent on transport of every kind. We import most of our energy, so we are totally exposed here, yet the Minister has done nothing except add to the cost of living by adding carbon.

The reality is this probably suits the Green Party. Its policy is driving demand destruction because people will have no choice but to stop using fuel and energy, or reduce usage to bare minimums. In response, the Minister will say he is saving the planet. He will say it is a just transition. What is just about people freezing in their homes? What is just about being pushed into abject poverty? What is just about not being able to go to work because it no longer makes financial sense to work, while the price of everything in the supermarket goes up? The Government could, if it wanted to, cut excise on the fuel but it will not. It is gouging the people by increasing taxes instead. Is it the case this so-called just transition we speak of has driven people into penury in rural Ireland? Whatever chance we had of a just transition without a war, we certainly have no chance now. To continue with this high-tax regime when we are, as an economy, extremely reliant on fuel and the transport of goods means this policy will contribute in a negligible way to the world targets on carbon emission reductions while we see our squeezed middle opt for unemployment benefits rather than work. In particular, if the proposal kited this week is anything to go by, the squeezed middle in rural Ireland, where there are no transport alternatives, would absolutely be financially better off to have joined the social welfare queue. Does the Minister realise what is happening?

As the Minister with responsibility for energy and for transport I absolutely realise the need for us to protect our people through these extraordinary times. War is setting the price, though thankfully the price of Brent crude oil went down to $101 per barrel yesterday. It had been up as high as $120 and $130 in recent weeks. In two weeks' time there will be that slight reduction but it is high beyond compare. The price of gas is even higher and is of a real concern with respect to the impact on fuel poverty. We absolutely have to do everything of every political perspective to try to protect our people in that time.

There are certain constraints on what you can do. I had a meeting with the Irish Road Haulage Association, IRHA, on Tuesday where we discussed at length what we can do and recognising that we had already in its case introduced a licensed haulier support scheme with €100 a week for every truck for an eight-week period to help through incredibly difficult times and try to counter some of the inflationary effect. The IRHA asked, as the Deputy has, could we cut excise further. I will explain why that is not an option. We have to follow European law. The European energy taxation directive-----

Our masters.

If I can explain it; it sets a minimum 33 cent per litre tax.

We are Irish. We are not European.

Prior to the war, our rate was 53 cent per litre in excise. It and VAT are the largest element of the tax. We reduced it by 15 cent per litre. There is, as Deputy Verona Murphy knows, a diesel rebate for the haulage sector of a further 7.5%. That brings it down to 33.04 cent, so there are certain areas where you cannot manoeuvre. There are certain areas where you have to stick to the law. We were talking to hauliers to see if there are other ways we can support people through this difficult time.

It is the same with motorists. No one is pointing the finger or blaming. We recognise people have to take journeys and must have choices. We had to do what we did to try to help with the alternatives. We cut public transport fares by 20% or for those aged under 24 years by 50% to try to help in that way. We will continue to do that but this is not easy. Most of the measures we are going to have to do are probably through the social welfare system and it is not just those on the basic social welfare rates but those on the likes of the working family payment and others. Those families who are not just in receipt of social welfare are the ones we have to particularly target. There was some good ESRI analysis that the Minister of State, Deputy Joe O'Brien, was informing me about. Those are the sort of targeted supports we are going to have to do in the budget. Many of them may be a one-off because, please God, this war will not last forever but we all recognise what needs to be done and we are doing it, in a variety of different ways.

I have no doubt the Minister's objectives are well intentioned and I applaud his aspiration but I am not sure he understands the unintended consequences of the Government's lack of action. If a person is living on the Hook Peninsula on the Wexford coast and has to drive to Wexford town every day to work, there is no use in the Minister telling that person to use public transport as the cost will be reduced. There is none. There is no use in telling the carer who might cover as much as 30 km to 40 km on their day visiting those who are at home and incapacitated and most in need of support. That carer is now giving up work. The question is why we are not doing something to prevent this.

I am sorry but the Minister is completely offside when he says we cannot control our own excise duties. I have listened in relation to VAT and I accept the EU may have governance over our VAT regime but it does not have it over our excise duties, carbon tax or NORA levy. All of these the Government could remove but has not. We have people who are drawing social welfare because they do not feel they need to go hungry or freeze in their homes. The Minister himself said the Government would look after those on social welfare, and that is where we will drive them to.

On the carbon tax, one other thing has changed in the last week. At the Council of Ministers meeting on energy last week, the Council committed to introducing, effectively, a Europe-wide carbon tax on transport and home buildings. It will go up to about €50 per tonne. That is what I think the Parliament recommends. It must go through negotiations with the Parliament but there is no one expecting it will be reversed. Therefore, Europe will be going towards introducing this. It already has a carbon tax on the industrial side and it will now introduce it on the domestic and the transport side. Ireland will not be included. We get a derogation because we have already gone in that direction. However, as I said at a meeting of the transport committee yesterday, if we were to change tack by giving up on the carbon tax and not having a similar scale of measure, the first thing we would have to do is start paying the European one. Then we would not have the funding that currently comes from that to support the retrofitting of our homes, to provide targeted social welfare increases and to help small farmers out.

Extraordinary measures in extraordinary times.

It was extraordinary we were able to get a derogation from that European proposal.

But we have the tax. It is not a derogation.

Second, for those in Hook Head, what every representative in this Chamber and in councils around the country should engage in is the new Connecting Ireland rural bus transport plan, which has the potential to be transformative. It will provide new services so we have options in rural Ireland. That is where I am hoping to put money in the budget because it is our number one transport priority.