Energy and Fuel Costs: Motion [Private Members]
Dail Éireann — 2026-03-18
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Martin Kenny (SF), Sligo-Leitrim

People are very annoyed it has taken so long for the Government to come to this situation that the Tánaiste is now able to stand here this evening and say the Government intends to do something. Up until now the Government would not even acknowledge that it intended to do anything. All it intended to do was examine the situation and monitor it. What people hear when the Government says that is that it is going to wait to see if things get worse and that it is not going to do anything about it now. That is what they have been hearing until now and that is not acceptable.
We have thousands of people across the country who have to go to work, bring their children to school and do all these things. They drive past the petrol pumps and look up and see the price going up and up all the time. We have farmers coming into this time of year when they are filing their tanks with fuel, with their green diesel, and that has all gone up. They have to spread fertiliser. That has to come through the Strait of Hormuz as well and that will be going up.
There is a serious crisis coming at our economy if we do not act. The reality is that the Government's tax take, because the base rate has risen, has gone up along with it. People are asking why the Government does not do something. Why has it done nothing up until now? It is only when we come here this evening with this motion and a Bill that will do something that the Tánaiste is able to say the Government is now going to act.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-18/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:45+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-18