Táimid i ngéarchéim costais bhreosla anois le trí seachtaine anuas agus ní a dhath déanta ag an Rialtas chun céim shoiléir a ghlacadh go fóill chun praghsanna a ísliú. Níl gníomh amháin déanta ag an Rialtas agus tá sé ag streachailt ón mbrú leanúnach ó Shinn Féin agus an reachtaíocht atá tugtha chun cinn againn. In ainneoin sin, níl a dhath déanta aige go fóill agus tá gnáthdhaoine ag fulaingt dá bharr. Inniu amháin, tá praghas díosal ardaithe 8 cent in aghaidh an lítear agus táthar ag meas go n-ardóidh sé 12 cent eile san oíche amárach. Tá méadú €100 tagtha ar an bpraghas chun umar a líonadh le hola teochta tí inniu agus táthar ag meas go n-ardóidh sé €120 breise amárach.

We are now in the third week of the fuel crisis and the Government has still not taken a single concrete step to bring down prices. Let us be clear, the Government has not acted. It has been forced onto the back foot by sustained pressure from Sinn Féin, including through the legislation we brought forward. Despite that, however, the Government has still done nothing. It could have acted at any point but it chose not to. Instead, it waited and dithered and people paid the price.

Fuel prices are not standing still. They are skyrocketing. Today alone, the price of diesel has increased by 8 cent per litre and it is projected to rise by a further 12 cent tomorrow night before VAT is even applied. The cost of home heating oil has increased by €100 per fill today, with a projected increase of €120 expected tomorrow night. While costs surge again, what is the Government's message to ordinary people out there? The message is wait until Tuesday. Wait for another meeting. Wait while prices climb. Wait while families fall further behind.

We know what delay means in real life. A pensioner told me he is sitting at home with no heating for a week because he cannot afford electricity and heat together; it is one or the other. Another family told us that they have just run out of oil but the price of a minimum order has gone from €280 to €600. Another person with arthritis is living in a damp, mouldy house and needs to keep warm but cannot afford to put on the heating. People are going cold in their own homes. Unbelievably, however, the Government will be pressing ahead with increasing the cost of home heating oil through higher carbon taxes in the next number of weeks.

The Tánaiste should not come back with guff about these tax increases being necessary to fund retrofitting because that is simply not true. The money is available. There is a multibillion euro surplus. If the banks were paying the 12.5% tax rate on the €3.6 billion in profits they generated last year that they should be paying instead of an effective rate of 1%, there would be even more resources available. Let us be honest about it. This is not about necessity; it is about political choice. The Government is all over the place on this issue. It is slow to act, reluctant to intervene and telling people to wait while their bills spiral.

Will the Government act today to reduce the cost of petrol, diesel and home heating oil? Will it scrap the planned home heating oil increases? Will it support Sinn Féin's legislation or is it going to continue to send the same message as costs go out of control? Will it ask people to wait for another meeting, to wait for it to get its act together or to wait for another week and maybe it will do something on Tuesday, Wednesday or whenever?

It will be on Tuesday. The Deputy said Tuesday, Wednesday or whenever, but there is quite a lot of clarity from Government in relation to that. We intend to bring forward an appropriate intervention at our next Cabinet meeting, which will be on Tuesday. Work is under way in relation to that right now. As recently as the past hour or so, the Minister for energy and transport met with the Irish Road Haulage Association. It was a very good and constructive meeting. The association outlined to him some of the challenges its members, who are a critical part of our economy and our supply chains, are facing. We will work through some of those thoughts and proposals in the coming hours.

The Government is absolutely clear that there is real pressure on families and businesses. People are feeling it at the pumps and in the cost of a fill of oil. As I confirmed last night, we are finalising what we believe to be an appropriate intervention for the areas in which there is the most acute pressure and challenge. In the Sinn Féin proposal, there is no talk about the fuel allowance. That is rather interesting, given that the people who are most at risk of fuel poverty really rely on that support.

There is significant international volatility. I was reading about what the Italian Government is considering doing today. It is talking about doing it for just 20 days. This is because governments right around the world, and I presume oppositions, are not able to predict where this conflict in the Middle East and the Gulf is going to bring the global economy. As I said last night - I reiterate it today - any measures that the Government takes next week need to fulfil two primary objectives. They need to ensure that assistance can be applied quickly and that we keep the space to adapt the response, should that be required, in the weeks and months ahead. We need to be honest that there is very little certainty in terms of where this conflict will go and what the economic impact could be, particularly when we consider that the length and depth of the conflict is such an important aspect.

The Government has already taken a number of actions. We have increased the fuel allowance to €38 per week. This means that the fuel allowance is now worth €1,064 per year to households. We are also expanding it in order that more people can qualify. Just last week, thanks to the intervention of the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Calleary, we expanded the fuel allowance to ensure that 50,000 families on the working family payment can benefit. This has been backdated to January, with many families getting lump sum payments of up to €308. Some 50,000 real people have benefited. We live in a country where over 470,000 households, or over one quarter of all homes in Ireland, now qualify for the fuel allowance. We have also reduced VAT on gas and electricity to 9% out to the end of the decade. We are supporting over 500,000 householders, many of them pensioners, with an allowance of €420 annually towards their gas and electricity bills under the household benefits package.

It is not correct to say that we are doing nothing. In fact, this year alone we are spending over €486 million on fuel allowance, €317 million on the household benefits package and €640 million on retrofitting. That is €1.5 billion on just those three measures alone.

I heard Deputy Doherty's interview on radio this morning. When he was asked where all the money was going to come from, his answer was that we should just take it out of the surplus. He knows that if you keep taking things out of a surplus, it becomes a deficit.

I also heard the Deputy say that the State is making a fortune on this and that it is estimated that it took in €38 million in taxes in one week alone as a result of these fuel costs. That is the annual cost not a weekly cost. Revenue estimates the cost at around €3 million per week. Accuracy is important, figures are important and getting this right is important and that is exactly what this Government intends to do.

While the Government dithers, the prices double and what the Tánaiste said is cold comfort to people on the street - people who are going cold at this point in time because they cannot afford to heat their homes. I have put the prices on the record. The Tánaiste talks about waiting another week, into the fourth week of this crisis, and about how the Government will come up with something and maybe reveal it all on Tuesday but people in the here and now are facing these prices. Diesel went up by 8 cent this morning and it is projected to go up by 12 cent tomorrow night. Home heating oil went up €100 this morning when it is already sky high. It has gone up by another €100 and is projected to go up another €120 tomorrow night. This is happening in real time and the Government dithers and thinks people can wait another week while it gets its act together. People cannot wait; they demand action now.

There are solutions that can be put forward. The Government can reduce the taxes on petrol, diesel and home heating oil. It can do what we have set out in our legislation. This could happen right here right now. We could bring a financial resolution before the House and tonight we could cut the cost of petrol, diesel and home heating oil but the Government refuses to do that. The Tánaiste says the Government hears where people are at but it refuses to act. We have the resources to do this, so why does the Government delay while the price of home heating oil doubles? Why does it dither when people are under so much pressure? Why will it not introduce the measures today for which people the length and breadth of this State are crying out? They are looking for action and leadership from Government and not more meetings, more delay and more dithering.

Because we want to get it right and a little bit of humility from the man who went on "Morning Ireland" this morning and got his figures out by €35 million a week would not go astray. The Deputy quoted an annual figure and said that we took in €38 million in windfall last week when it is €3 million. That is not a couple of million. The Deputy was out by €35 million a week.

We are going to get this right, we are going to take it step by step and we are going to work with European counterparts. The Taoiseach is at the European Council, the Minister for Transport has just finished a meeting with the hauliers, the Minister for Social Protection is considering how we can assist because most in need and my Department's economics team is trying to present the best macroeconomic analysis. The only place where there is dithering is where there is a Sinn Féin finance minister. Sinn Féin has powers in Northern Ireland to expand the fuel poverty funds but the only assistance, and it is a small bit of assistance, for people in Northern Ireland so far has been from the British Government. The Northern Ireland Executive, the Sinn Féin First Minister, the Sinn Féin finance minister and Sinn Féin economy minister have brought forward exactly zero euro and zero cent in measures to help people in Northern Ireland. This Government will act and act in the here and now. We are finalising our proposals and we will work with people and support them in the time ahead.