Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-28
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

I acknowledge that the war in the Middle East, which the Deputy somehow managed not to mention, is a war that has created shocking constraints in oil supply and has led to an increase in fuel prices across the world. Globally people are very concerned about what they see as the biggest shock to the energy sector in many a time. They are saying it is bigger than 1973 and 1979 combined, and even 1973, 1979 and 2022 combined. It is a very serious shock to the energy system that has been brought about, which has dramatically increased prices and will result in a global contraction of fossil fuel supplies with consequential impacts on other products like fertiliser, helium and so on, which in turn could have impacts on jobs and on food production across the world. These are very serious issues we are all facing.
We acknowledge fully that this is creating pressures on families and on households. There is no question about that. There is an uncertainty about it as well because we do not quite know when this is going to end and when the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is going to end, which is key to getting prices down and getting supply reactivated again to a significant degree. The Deputy has not referenced any of that. It is as if it does not exist in the Deputy's world but those are the realities facing every government across the world right now.
Yes, from our perspective, in the budget we majored very heavily on housing, on infrastructure, on disability, with a 20% increase, and on child poverty, with the support payments for children going up substantially by record levels. For children over the age of 12, it is by €16 and for children under the age of 12, it is less than that but still by record levels both ways. We also extended the fuel allowance to bring in those on the working family payment, which brought in an extra 50,000 people. About 26% of people are on the fuel allowance. That measure does help people deal with this, not comprehensively but at least it is a contribution to people to take pressure off them in respect of rising fuel prices.
We announced a package of over €750 million that has brought down the excise duty by about 32 cent on diesel and by about 27 cent on petrol. Those measures affect and help everybody. Today the Government approved two very specific packages for the transport haulier sector, which is much more expanded than was the case during the Ukrainian energy crisis. These very substantial schemes will also help farmers, fishers and contractors. We must remember that about 240,000 workers are involved in the haulage and logistics industry. I know the Deputy described them last week as a sectional thing and that we were only looking after particular sectors but it is key to everybody and all workers that we can get goods to port and get them exported at an affordable price, and that we can get goods on our supermarket shelves at an affordable price. When we alleviate the pressure on hauliers, logistics and supply, we are alleviating pressures on everybody, and likewise in terms of food production. We are not scattered all over the place, this was strategic to deal with food production. This is a critical period in terms of food. We are a big food-producing country and it is right that we should alleviate the pressures on farmers in particular around food production areas and alleviate the pressures on contractors given the role they play in food production.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-28/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:52+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-28