We are four weeks into a crisis that has seen fuel prices skyrocket and only now has the Government brought forward limited measures to respond. It has taken relentless pressure from Sinn Féin and massive public anger to force it to act.

The Government watched on as fuel prices spun out of control. It has sat back as working people struggle to heat their homes and fill their cars. When households needed a government of action, they got this do-nothing Government. Clearly its plan was to ride this one out. Its package today had to be dragged out of it. Still the Government comes to the table with half-measures. It could not bring itself to provide the maximum support that people need. The reductions in motor fuel do not go far enough.

The Government has it in its power to deliver the maximum excise cut possible on diesel, a similar cut for petrol and to remove excise entirely from home heating oil. Motorists have been hammered for a month at the pumps and the Government could have done more, but instead it chooses to short-change people. However, its standout failure is on home heating oil. It has literally abandoned the 750,000 households that rely on home heating oil. The price of a fill of home heating oil has doubled in a matter of weeks. A measly cut of 2 cent a litre is an insult. It amounts only to a €20 reduction on a fill that now costs around €1,700 - a drop in the tank.

Of course, in any event, the Government will take this back from people anyway when it hikes up carbon tax in just a few weeks. It gives with one hand, only to take back with the other. It could have removed, and should completely remove, excise on home heating oil. That would provide these households with a meaningful relief but instead it chooses to leave them high and dry. Once again when it comes to the crunch, the Government sells working people short with weak half-measures but that is Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil all over. The Government's measure on fuel allowance is paltry. Extending the payment by four weeks will not make a dent in these massive fuel price hikes.

Chuir Sinn Féin iachall ar an Rialtas bogadh. Faraor, tá beartas Fhianna Fáil agus Fine Gael maidir le díosal agus peitril i bhfad róbheag i gcomparáid le cad atá ag teastáil. I gcás teaghlaigh atá ag brath ar ola theasa tí, tá siad tréigthe. Beidh Sinn Féin ag brú le haghaidh fíorghníomh anocht.

These soaring fuel prices are a real emergency for households requiring real action, not the half measures the Government presents today. We will not watch on as the Government lets people down again. These are people who have to get to work in the morning, carers who have to get to the people they look after and people with disabilities, who, it should be remembered, were left €1,400 worse off in the Government's budget.

We will therefore move an amendment to the Government's financial resolution to deliver the maximum excise cut possible for diesel and a similar cut for petrol and to completely remove excise and strip away carbon tax from home heating oil. That is the difference between the Taoiseach and me. I believe that when families are put to the pin of their collar and when the Government can intervene, it should - no delays, no excuses, just action.

Ní aontaím leis an Teachta. Is éard atá faoi chaibidil ag an Rialtas ná cabhair agus tacaíocht a thabhairt do dhaoine ar ioncam íseal agus do na daoine is boichte sa tír. Sin é an fáth go bhfuil, ó thaobh cúrsaí leasa shóisialaigh de, cabhair agus tacaíocht á dtabhairt againn. Tá níos mó cabhrach agus tacaíochta á dtabhairt don tionscal haulage chomh maith mar tá sé riachtanach ó thaobh cúrsaí geilleagar na tíre.

This is a moment of great instability and uncertainty in the world, and the war in the Middle East has created without question the greatest oil supply shock ever in the history of the markets. That is a very sobering and significant reality that has to be taken on board by any responsible government. We have no intention of being reckless or irresponsible with this crisis. We want to be flexible and to give supports to people. Every government is limited as to what it can do in situations like these. All the international advice from the ECB, the IMF and so on is to target temporary, affordable measures because we do not quite know what is around the corner as to how this will unfold, not only in terms of the war itself but also in terms of the Strait of Hormuz and the impact on oil and gas installations that have already been destroyed. There will be a lag time now of a couple of years before some of those are restored to capacity. The wise thing to do, therefore, is to introduce measures of the kind we have introduced today, that are targeted and that give some degree of universal support in terms of the reduction in excise and petrol duties. That is important. Then there is a very specific measure for the haulage industry, which Sinn Féin would not support and which it was warning us against doing yesterday. The reason we are doing that is that the haulage industry is absolutely central to our trading and to our economy. It is extremely important that over the mid-term we make sure structurally that we create a sustainable haulage industry into the future to underpin what is a very strong exporting economy. That is the targeted nature of this.

The fuel allowance has been extended for four weeks, which will take us up to 1 May. I think any reasonable person would say that by that stage - yes, climate and the weather change and so on - we will be in a warmer situation. It is logical to target about 470,000 families on low incomes. I know Sinn Féin opposes that. It believes in allocating about €2 billion to €3 billion right now. What do we do in October, what do we do in December, if the consequences of this crisis continue?

We have a budget coming up. We want to protect investment in services, education, health and children right across the board. These are real choices we have to make. I am sure the Deputy herself must realise that. It is probably one of the more generous packages being developed across Europe. I do not know what instructions she has given to her own Ministers in Northern Ireland. I think a total of £30 is the only benefit towards upcoming bills that it is giving. It cannot decide where an additional £17 million that is available is to go. Sinn Féin has two Ministers in charge of this brief in Northern Ireland, and I ask the Deputy to compare their performance with what we are doing here.

There is no comparison. There has been poor enough leadership from those in Deputy McDonald's party who are in charge of that operation. From our point of view, these are temporary measures. We do need to retain some degree of flexibility in terms of how this situation unfolds in the coming weeks and months.

The Taoiseach is always so shocked and outraged when it is a case of families and working people needing support. That is such an "outrageous" thing to say. That is so "unsustainable". It is always so "unaffordable", even when the Government coffers are full. Of course, he takes a take a very different view when it is developers or big bankers or big corporate interests. Mind them every day of the week, but when the families come knocking on the door and when they are under pressure, that is a different story. How very telling and how very Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. It is not wise to leave 750,000 households who rely on home heating oil in the lurch. It is not wise to short-change workers, carers and people who have to get out and about to do their business. These are families and people who are already to the pin of their collar in a cost-of-living crisis. Where is the wisdom of that? Not alone is it stingy and mean and detached but above all else, it reveals the Government's political priorities and, by God, those are not the working men and women of this country.

With the greatest respect, the only party of late that has been courting bankers and developers and every sort of corporate financial operation is Sinn Féin, particularly in the United States, where the party has raised a hell of a lot of money from developers and builders. Spare lecturing everybody else about fundraising from developers and bankers and everybody because Sinn Féin has been doing it on a serial basis for many years in the United States, Northern Ireland, the UK and elsewhere.

And Australia.

Deputy McDonald speaks out of both sides of her mouth when it comes to all of that playbook that she just regurgitates every time there is an event or a crisis in the world. We do not take Sinn Féin's approach. Exactly what we are doing here is targeting our measures on the fuel allowance, which would help poorer families and low-income working families withstand the impact of the increases in home heating oil and other energy products. That has been our focus and, indeed, in the budget it was our focus. The ESRI bears out that we had a very strong budget in terms of the low-income deciles.

It does not. You cannot keep on lying. It does not. It is not true. I will send it to you.

You are not leader yet, Deputy. I keep on saying you are not leader of the party; do not be interrupting. The bottom line is that the evidence is there that we looked after the lowest income groups and through the household benefit scheme as well, which was successfully improved as a result of the budget.