Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-03-25
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

The Deputy’s assessment is not correct in the sense that he ignored the extension of the fuel allowance for four weeks, which will help about 470,000 people to deal with the rise in the price of home heating oil. There is no doubt that there is huge pressure on families and people across the country. The price of home heating oil has increased very significantly because of the war, not because of what the Government did. The price shock that is occurring because of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz as well as the bombing of gas and oil installations in Iran and in the Gulf states. That is the fundamental cause of the current crisis. It still has not reached the levels that we reached at the time of the Russian invasion of Ukraine when we also had an oil price and energy crisis.
Government has to act. This is March and we have another winter to come. We do not quite know what is around the corner and what measures might be required from Government in response to potentially a further deterioration in the future. Hopefully this war ends very quickly; it should end very quickly. That is what we want but we do not know what might happen in respect of that. We also have to prepare for a budget and keep our resources in reserve.
I know the Deputy is against the carbon tax; I think he would abolish it in total.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-25/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:47+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-25