I want to express my condolences on the sad passing of a wonderful friend, Seamus Carroll. He was a true gentleman and there is a sense of gloom around the House this morning. I wish his wife and family all the very best.

I also want to mention iarchomhairleoir Seamus O'Donnell from Contae Phort Láirge.

The Chief Whip would have known him and worked with him for many years. He was a special, dedicated, hard-working county councillor for the ten years he spent on Waterford City and County Council. He was a community activist. Gaeilge was a big love as well as many other issues. Serving people and his community was his motto. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis for both men.

As we approach another budget, families, workers, farmers, hauliers and a lot of small business people – nearly everyone – are really frustrated with the Government’s approach to helping people in this crisis. Following the fuel protests and growing public anger, the Government introduced limited temporary measures. They were welcomed by the people but now when we see the price of diesel again at €2.20, and even €2.30 in places, they are like snow off a ditch. They are gone and there is no impact at all from them. The reality is fuel is not a luxury. It is a necessity. Workers need to get to work. Farmers need machinery to plough and till their lands and provide food, which is really important, and have vehicles to operate. Carers need to visit vulnerable people. Small businesses are squeezed to the limit. The cost of transport is just crippling everybody. Above all, there is the home heating oil. Pensioners and ordinary families are trying to fill their tanks at double the price of last year and worse. It is really unthinkable.

The Government continues to pile costs onto motorists through carbon taxes while taking an enormous share of the profit paid at the pump. We must look at that figure. Where a litre of fuel costs €2.15, the Taoiseach’s Government is taking approximately 91 cent from every litre through excise duty, carbon tax levies and VAT. He has his hand in the people’s pockets every day of the week - himself and the Tánaiste, Simon Harris. It is time he took it out of it and gave fair play to the people. Fair play is fine play with me. They need fair play. They do not want fine play but they need fair play. They need to be respected here in the crisis they are in, especially in rural Ireland when we do not have public transport. Cars and vans are a necessity, not a luxury. They have to have them. The Taoiseach’s obsession, when he was in government with the Green Party, with the carbon tax and everything else has to be rethought, re-examined and totally stopped for the present time to have further evaluation because the money, or an awful lot of it, is not going back into retrofitting, as I have pointed out here before.

Does the Taoiseach accept that the carbon tax must be halted rather than increased and that we must give meaningful supports? Talk in the media of €7.50 for pensioners is not acceptable. They need a decent modicum of a respectable increase to allow them to have a modicum of living that should be available to them and is not.

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. As I said earlier, we are in the midst of a very significant cost-of-living issue because of two major wars, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the war in Iran, which have caused very significant increases in oil prices. Oil prices have risen from about $69 a barrel in February last to about $104 in May, while gas prices increased from €32 to €47 per megawatt hour. These are very significant increases.

In the last budget we brought in a series of measures under social protection to protect the lowest incomes. The Deputy said what we introduced earlier this year were limited temporary measures in respect of reducing the excise by 27 cent a litre on petrol and 32 cent per litre on diesel, 7.4% in terms of marked oil, and other measures we took in terms of hauliers, contractors and so on. The cost of that was €1.3 billion and they are still in place so they are not limited and they have not been too temporary either. The Government is examining all of that in the context of the budget.

The carbon tax is much lower than any of that. It is about 2 cent – that is the increase that will come - and we are looking at the home heating component of the carbon tax in terms of kerosene and gas because we realise that home heating is critical for pensioners and so forth. We examined that in the context of the forthcoming budget. However, there is a limit. If we go below a certain threshold of carbon tax we then have to pay carbon tax to Europe, essentially, under the ETS2. That makes no sense because the carbon tax is used for farmers, retrofitting and the energy-saving, cost-saving measures that Darragh O’Brien has been very effective on. He announced a further €115 million yesterday that will significantly benefit a lot of households to go solar or for other insulation, such as attic and cavity wall insulation, and batteries. All of that will bring down the cost of energy for individual households by close to €800 or €900 a year, which would meet some of the increases that have occurred over the last while since the wars broke out.

About 287,000 houses have availed of retrofitting grants and various measures that will help them permanently reduce their energy costs. We have to double down on that. We have to increase the availability of TAMS for farmers in respect of solar, for example, and we should make sure that happens comprehensively because that will make a difference. Where we provide a lot of resources across the board, farmers have shown they will respond by adopting measures and mechanisms such as solar to save and reduce costs. That is something we are very focused on doing.

No farmers, no food. Irish forestry contractors will be in the audiovisual room this evening.

People are at their wits' end. The Taoiseach does not seem to realise it. I mentioned the Taoiseach’s hand in the people’s pockets. The data centres and all these other companies have very deep pockets and the Taoiseach is saying to me he is very afraid to even go near their pockets or even ask them to take out their handkerchief. He will not touch them at all. Fair play is what is needed here. We need to finally get rid of this excessive carbon tax. It was slipped in in a shoddy way seven or eight years ago in the convention centre for ten years without ever a vote in this House again. Many parties here now who are opposing it and shouting about it were party to it so it is codology to think that.

People out there cannot afford to retrofit their houses. They have not the first €25,000 to put up in the first place. They are barely about to put food on the table. They are barely able to send their kids to school. That is the reality of it. I do not know how the Taoiseach is so adrift from it and Fianna Fáil has removed itself so much from the ordinary people, na daoine na hÉireann. They are out there and struggling. They are willing to put their shoulder to the wheel – they always do – but they need supports and they need meaningful support from this budget-----

Thank you, Deputy McGrath.

-----and we need carbon tax not paused but ended.

My understanding is that it was in budget 2010 that the carbon tax was introduced so it was not introduced five or six years ago.

It was passed in the convention centre.

It was 2010 it was brought in. The carbon tax is much bigger than what the Deputy is suggesting happened. Five or six years ago there were defined increases legislated for in respect of the carbon tax.

By this House.

The actual carbon tax itself goes back to 2010.

I know that.

In any event, it supports a lot of farmers. It supports the retrofitting programme which, as I said, about 280,000 people have now benefited from and also in relation to fuel poverty as well.

The bigger issue is the wars have increased fuel prices enormously. That is the bigger issue. Yes, there is huge pressure on people and that is why we helped haulage, farmers and contractors with the measures we introduced earlier in the year.

You are taking part in the war in Ukraine.

Deputy McGrath.

Also, the budget-----

You are giving money out of tax people are paying.

----- through income tax reductions-----

You are part of the war machine.

-----through strong social protection-----

You are a part of the war machine.

Deputy McGrath. Allow the Taoiseach to answer.

We are part of no war machine.

You are of course.

We will conclude on that, Taoiseach.

Any time they come over here he gets pocket money going home-----

Deputy McGrath.

-----like snuff at a wake.

Deputy McGrath, resume your seat.

Sure, that is the facts of it.

Before we move to Questions on Policy or Legislation, on behalf of the Ceann Comhairle and myself I want to join with the other Members who have expressed condolences to the Carroll family on the untimely death of Seamus Carroll. I offer sincere condolences to Seamus’s wife, Treasa, who also works in the service, their family and all the staff of the superintendents section, everyone who knew Seamus and who enjoyed his friendly chat with him over the last 11 years of his service here. He was a gentleman and a very fine parliamentary usher. He will be sadly missed. May he rest in peace.

Hear, hear.