Tá brú ollmhór ar dhaoine mar gheall ar na harduithe móra i bpraghsanna ola tí, peitreal agus díosal. Tá Sinn Féin ag moladh réitithe le dul i ngleic leis seo agus praghsanna a laghdú. Caithfidh an Rialtas iad a chur i bhfeidhm láithreach. Workers, families and businesses are under enormous unsustainable pressure from soaring fuel prices. The price of home heating oil, petrol and diesel has skyrocketed. People simply cannot afford the Government paying lip service to this situation. They need the Government to do its job; they need action and they need it to implement solutions.

Tonight, Sinn Féin has legislation before the Dáil to bring down fuel costs by removing carbon tax. This is the eighth time that we have brought forward this measure and the Government has voted against it on every single occasion. The cost of home heating oil has shot up by hundreds of euro in just the past three weeks. Families are exhausted. They are sick to their back teeth of being fleeced just to heat their homes. A full fill of oil now costs €1,600. How on earth can people be expected to pay those prices? Why on earth would people be expected to pay these prices?

The Government needs to recognise the intense pressure households are under and back our proposal tonight. The Government needs to act to ease the burden of soaring petrol and diesel prices because prices have now topped €2 per litre in many places. In some parts of the country, motorists are forced to fork out €2.20 for a litre of diesel. Instead of doing its job and moving quickly to get fuel prices down, the Government dithers, delays and drags its heels once again. It tells people to wait. There is no action - there is plenty of kite-flying, mind you, as regards what the Government might do in the budget. As a matter of fact, the Government must have leaked half of the budget already. The one thing it has not done is provide workers, families and businesses with clarity on the relief the Government will bring forward in respect of fuel.

Public frustration is again building. The Government is rerunning the same out-of-touch, go-slow approach that brought so much anger, so much stress and discontent back in the springtime - anger, the Minister will remember, that boiled over into mass protest. The public had to force the Government to listen and act. People should not have to take to the streets again for the Government to do something to get surging fuel prices down. That is the Government's job.

It is time to stop talking about all the things it cannot control and time to act on the things that it can. That means cutting taxes to bring down fuel prices. What we need now is decisive action that puts workers and families first. I am asking the Government to immediately introduce solutions - now, today - that will make a real difference for people. That means implementing our legislation, removing carbon tax from home heating oil and giving households some desperately needed relief. It means providing a further immediate excise cut on petrol and diesel to get their prices down.

I thank Deputy McDonald for her remarks. As she knows, budget 2027 is being designed and delivered against a significant international backdrop and risk to the Irish economy. In the context of geopolitical uncertainty, we have gone through a significant series of shocks over the last number of months and years. The Government is cognisant of the serious pressures families face when it comes to day-to-day issues when filling their cars with diesel or petrol or buying home heating oil. The budget is taking place in two weeks' time, and this is just political opportunism from the Deputy and her party trying to bring that forward on a two-week basis when she knows negotiations are ongoing.

The central priority for the Government is to help with the cost of living. That will happen through a significant income tax package to reward work, support workers across the economy and give people a break. It will drive affordability across different areas of service provision, including childcare and the cost of disability, and using the social protection package to help those most in need and most pressurised by the increased cost of energy across our economy. Areas like the fuel allowance are under consideration. We have constantly said publicly and in our negotiations that we are keeping the wider taxation of fuel and energy under review so that we are agile and responsive to the needs across our economy.

Let us consider the measures that we have taken thus far. We have taken measures costing in excess of €1 billion in response to the energy shock in 2026, with reductions in excise on a litre of petrol of 27 cent and a litre of diesel of 32 cent. We have extended the fuel allowance. These are all matters for further consideration for the budget in two weeks' time. We are also cognisant of the current price pressure on home heating oil, which is why that is receiving specific consideration in the context of the budget.

It would be better if the Deputy just came forward with constructive and helpful input-----

-----rather than seeking to politicise everything. How Sinn Féin can gain is the constant direction from the Deputy's party, and how it can exploit different areas and different people across our economy. I look forward to reading Sinn Féin's pre-budget submission, because we know that, while it has a loose attachment to many in the Russian economy, it plays Russian roulette with the Irish economy when it comes to all its pre-budget submissions.

Making a speech and coming up with nothing.

Sinn Féin wants to cut taxes, massively ramp up expenditure and undermine our economic future. In this budget, we will prioritise, we will target towards those most in need, but we will also protect growth, prosperity and jobs for the Irish economy into the 2030s, ensuring that we continue to build enterprise, strengthen our labour market and give people that hopeful future. That is about protecting investment in infrastructure and housing as well, which is a critical part of budget 2027.

The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, is also working on a broad range of supports when it comes to trying to reduce the reliance on fossil fuels in our economy and there will be additional measures there, too. This will be a budget that is centrally focused on the cost of living, improving public services and alleviating the tax burden on work. It will make a difference and will seek to mitigate the harm for those most in need over the winter period.

Jesus, that is woeful spoofing. The Minister does not have to speculate on anything because we have been very clear for months on end that the Government has to give assistance to the 700,000 households that heat their homes with heating oil. The Government has done nothing except give this kind of guff and try to act to distract, but it will not distract people from the realities of their lives.

Now, as we meet and as we speak, they are being ripped off for home heating oil and fuel prices are soaring again, just as we told the Government they would. All the Government has ever done is the minimum and it has to be brought kicking and screaming to even do that. Let me just repeat, for the avoidance of doubt: this evening, we are bringing forward a concrete measure to address the removal of carbon taxes from home heating oil.

Thank you, Deputy. Your time is up. The Minister, Deputy Chambers, to respond.

We are simply asking that the Government do that now because families, households and businesses are struggling.

Hear, hear.

The Deputy's party continues to vote against all of the measures that we took, which made significant interventions that helped people when it came to the reductions of excise. Hers is the party of guff, day in, day out.

Hear, hear.

It is full of waffle, full of no solutions and its economic policies are a road to ruination. That is Sinn Féin, day in, day out.

Is that all the Minister has?

What about the children in poverty?

The reason I say that is economic management and protecting the economy can never be described as "guff". Of course there are trade-offs and choices for the Government about how we want to prioritise resources and how we want to moderate day-to-day spending to protect Ireland's long-term future. Sinn Féin just produces double-digit levels of growth and expenditure and ramps up taxes on work and enterprise, on the very backbone of the Irish economy and prosperity, on the wealth creators who are giving us the opportunity through increased corporation tax to distribute that to help people across our economy.

Developers. Banks.

Developers.

It just shows that Sinn Féin cannot be trusted with the economy and with protecting Ireland when it comes to our future.

Hear, hear.