Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions Dail Éireann — 2026-03-04 ============================================================ Mary Lou McDonald (SF), Dublin Central As a Cabra woman, I extend a particular welcome to all of the girls from Finglas - our neighbours. They are very welcome. Tá fáilte rompu go léir. We are already witnessing a surge in fuel prices in reaction to the US-Israeli onslaught in the Middle East. People across the country are reporting massive hikes in the cost of home heating oil, with prices having increased by as much as 35% in the past number of days. The cost of home heating oil was already high so people really cannot believe what they are seeing. This morning, I was contacted by a 94-year-old woman from Wexford who relies on home heating oil to keep her house warm. Only last week, the price for a half fill of oil from her provider was €464. By midday today, that had jumped to €879. That is almost double the price in just days. This extortionate hike puts this elderly woman under huge pressure but her options are either pay up or go cold. This woman is not alone. Yesterday, people spoke out on the radio about the price of home heating oil shooting up sharply in real time. Heating oil providers have jacked up their prices by hundreds of euro. This is blatant price-gouging and greed. It is a brazen rip-off, happening in plain sight. Of course, the price surge is also hitting motorists at the pumps. People are reporting increases as high as ten cent a litre since this onslaught began. Companies are clearly taking advantage of this crisis to squeeze even more profit from their customers. The Taoiseach is entirely passive on the matter. Yesterday, he said there was no excuse for price-gouging but it is not good enough to criticise price-gouging and then do absolutely nothing about it. By the way, writing a letter to the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, CCPC, and asking for a review of the energy market is really no action at all. It is a cop-out. The Taoiseach needs to pick up the phone and tell the top brass in these companies to stop fleecing people. The Government needs to drop its plan to increase carbon tax in the coming weeks, increases that will drive up the cost of home heating oil even further. Surely, the Taoiseach can now accept it is his job to step in and act with purpose to protect households from these hikes and stop this price gouging. Tá teaghlaigh cráite ag arduithe ollmhóra ar phraghas an ola teas tí. Tá price-gouging agus saint le feiceáil go soiléir ó chomhlachtaí. Caithfidh an Rialtas stop a chur leis an tsaill seo. The Taoiseach cannot do nothing as these price shocks hit home. For too long, the message from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to struggling households has been, "You are on your own". That has to change and change fast. People are under pressure. The Government needs to intervene to help. Will the Government scrap its plan to push up the price of home heating oil even further? Will the Taoiseach tell people today that he will not hike carbon taxes while they struggle to heat their homes? Will he outline what concrete, direct action he will take to end this rip-off and stop the price-gouging? He is left with a clear choice: he can take on these price-gouging companies or he can sit back and force households to take the pain. Which choice will the Taoiseach make? --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-04/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:43+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-03-04