119. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance if he will consider further measures on excise duty to reduce the cost of petrol and diesel. [68617/26]

The price of diesel is well above €2 per litre at the pumps right across this State, and at many of them it as high as €2.20. I am sure that the Tánaiste has noticed that. It is hammering people who have no alternative to driving. For many people in rural areas, their car is their connection and lifeline. They simply cannot do without it, whether it is going to work or dropping the kids to school. Does the Tánaiste accept that the situation has got worse since the Dáil was recalled? Does he accept that there is now a need for further intervention to reduce the cost at the pumps in the scale of further reductions in excise?

I fully and factually have to accept that the price of diesel and petrol has risen further since the Dáil was recalled. That is a statement of fact and there is an onus on all of us in this House to work in a constructive fashion in terms of more proposals and ideas that we can consider together.

Faced with the sudden rise in global energy prices, we have taken a number of actions. We have taken actions that did reduce the price as to what it otherwise would have been at the pumps. We have provided targeted assistance for vulnerable households. We have introduced financial support for critical sectors with acute exposure to high fuel prices. We also have to continue, and we saw more measures today from the Minister Climate, Energy and the Environment, Deputy O’Brien, in relation to vital long-term investment to try to help people who are genuinely trying to transition but need support in terms of that, whether it is replacing the boiler or putting solar panels on the house.

We have seen over €1.3 billion in measures targeted at households, farmers, agricultural contractors, hauliers, and businesses. The Government has delivered one of the largest, if not the largest, support packages in the EU per capita. As we finalise the budget for next week, we are extremely conscious of the pressure that people are under when it comes to energy costs and energy prices.

We are actively endeavouring to advance a number of issues to provide assistance and certainty to people when it comes to energy, including on excise, and I have already signalled this.

We have got to be honest with people, and I think the Deputy accepts this, that there is no government in the world that can absorb all of the impact of the global energy shock. We have already temporarily reduced the mineral oil tax applying to petrol, auto diesel and marked gas oil, MGO. Inclusive of the reduction in the NORA levy, these changes save consumers and businesses 27 cent per litre of petrol, 32 cent per litre of auto diesel and 7.4 cent per litre of MGO.

It is perhaps because of those reasons that when I attended a meeting of the budgetary oversight committee last week, I was able to print out an article from the Euronews website that showed while diesel and petrol prices are still very high in Ireland, we were not featuring in the top ten in the European Union for petrol or diesel as of last week. I need to check them again this week. I am just making the point that the interventions are making a difference.

I have been very clear. We are not going to be a position to restore those excise measures in November as previously outlined, and we will be bringing forward more proposals to provide certainty for the winter in next month’s budget.

I have said it numerous times. We cannot control the international price of a barrel of oil. We cannot control what happens in the Middle East or in the Strait of Hormuz, but what we can control in this House is the amount of tax we apply to petrol and diesel. When people are driving up to their petrol stations and they are being charged €2.20 for a litre of diesel and they need that car and the diesel in their tank to go to work, drop the kids to school, visit their mother or whatever, then that pressure is too much.

The resources are in the State. We can all accept that. The resources are in the State to help people at this time of need. I am putting it to the Tánaiste very clearly. When these prices are this high, the Government needs to go further. It has the ability to reduce excise further on petrol and diesel. It can do that. It can do it on the budget day, if it wants, which is only a couple of days away. It should have done it before this, but I am asking the Minister whether the Government will consider reducing excise further or petrol and diesel. It is a simple question. Is that under consideration?

Quite frankly, we are considering the whole issue of energy in the round. We need to be truthful with people. I am not suggesting that the Deputy is not. We need to be truthful with people in relation to things like EU directives and how far we have gone. In fact, we have gone further, as the Deputy knows, than the EU directives and sought derogations in some cases already. We have also got to be honest with people, who rightly want us to be able to do a whole variety of things in the budget next week, that there is a limit to what we can do and what any government can do in relation to energy.

At the moment, as profiled by the financial resolutions passed in this House, the excise cuts are due to be reversed starting in November. That will not happen. As a Government, we have agreed to provide clarity and certainty for people for the winter months. There are also other pressing issues that the Deputy and others have highlighted around home heating oil, gas and perhaps the carbon tax that is applied in relation to that. There are limits in relation to that too under the ETS2 derogation, but there is room to do stuff.

There are lots of ways of helping people with energy and cost of living and some of them are not related to energy, such as things like income tax proposals and childcare costs. People do not look at what they have at the end of the week or month based on which Department did what. They look at the overall package that the Government brings forward and we will bring forward a range of cost-of-living measures next week.

I told the Minister a couple of weeks ago that the Government's plan to reintroduce excise on petrol and diesel was nuts. Putting up carbon tax in two weeks' time in October and then further on 1 November is absolute bonkers. That is why we voted against it. Let us be clear: the Government will get no pats on the back from people for saying "I am not making your lives worse." What people expect from a Government is of course that not to make things harder, but when diesel and petrol prices are high, and the diesel price is €2.20 per litre, they want the Government to use some of the resources that workers collectively across this State have created. They want the Government to use the additional VAT that was brought into the Government's coffers, including €300 million more than expected at the end of August because prices are so high, to reduce excise further.

The Minister did not answer the question. He said that the Government is looking at everything in the context of energy. My question was not about energy broadly. My question is about petrol and diesel. Workers and families want to know whether the Government understands the pressure they are under. Is the Government considering further excise reductions on petrol and diesel?

Where the Deputy and I have disagreed on this, and we have disagreed on a few points, is that the Government has taken the approach, which we actually think is the right approach, to be agile and nimble, locking in decisions for long periods, when, with the greatest of respect, the Deputy or I did not know what was going to happen the Strait of Hormuz and whether it was going to get better or worse. The Deputy and I did not know that. Locking in taxpayers' money actually takes away the ability to be agile or nimble. We have shown every time as a Government that we have responded and respectfully the Deputy has suggested every time that we were going to put it back up but we have not. We are being agile and nimble. We are using taxpayers' money - we have to look at it in the round - to help people in the here and now.

What we have done with petrol and diesel has not just helped at the pumps. It has suppressed inflation in the economy by around 0.6%, so it has had a positive impact on food prices too.

Will the Tánaiste answer the question?

The answer to the question is that all of these are matters for budget day next Tuesday. The Government will consider all of them. The Deputy would not expect, because he has been at this a while, any other answer from me-----

If it is to one of the newspapers, the Tánaiste will leak like the Titanic.

Deputy, please.

He will leak like the Titanic.

Deputy, it is the Tánaiste's opportunity-----

I look forward to engaging-----

If there is a journalist in the corridor, he will tell him everything, but, by God, will he tell the Dáil-----

Deputies, the time for the question has expired.

-----or the people of Ireland who are worried about their fuel bills? If there are any journalists here, maybe we will get an answer to the question-----

We are moving on to-----

I read Siobhán Fenton's book recently.

-----an Teachta Tony McCormack.

She gave a very good insight into how Deputy Doherty performs in this House. I think it is on page 154.

An Teachta Tony McCormack, the floor is yours.

It is a good description. She says he is a nice man and just acts for the cameras.