Finance Bill 2026: Second Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-02
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Robert Troy (FF), Longford-Westmeath

She made the point that no-one benefited. She said the ordinary person pulling up at the forecourt did not benefit from the €750 million intervention the Government made but at the same time the restoration of the excise, which is in response to the fact international oil prices are dropping and the price of fuel at the pump is dropping, is going to have a detrimental impact. The Senator is contradicting herself with that point. When you add the two initial interventions and the interventions we will be bringing to this House next week to extend the reductions to August and then gradually restore the excise over a period of four months, they will cost almost €1 billion. That is the cost to the taxpayers, the people who are working, and it is right and proper it is done in a structured way when we see how international oil prices are. It would be wrong to simply say we can kick this on indefinitely, that there would be no cost to the Exchequer and to hell with the consequences. That would be wrong. Despite some people in the Opposition saying this was going to happen at the end of July and that nobody was listening, the Government has always maintained we would constantly monitor the situation and act accordingly and that is exactly what we are doing. We are acting in a responsible, prudent way in recognition of how international oil prices were.
On there being no supports, the Government has introduced free books, introduced free school meals and extended eligibility for the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance so it can be availed of in respect of younger children. It would be great to have money to spend on every single ask not just from the Opposition but from the Government and Government Members. However, we have to ensure we have a balanced budget and that we spend within our means. Senator Joe O'Reilly made the point that if we did not have balanced budgets and budget surpluses in the last number of years we would not have been able to make the interventions we were able to make. It was because of the prudent management of the economy over a number of years that we were able to make the interventions that went towards mitigating the severity of the crisis. It did not alleviate it and no one on this side of the House is claiming it did, but it went towards mitigating it. Interventions went in a targeted way to the haulage industry and the agriculture industry and to low-income families via the increase in the fuel allowance. I do not ever expect we will have agreement across all sides of the House but it would be nice to have it recognised that this was a serious intervention in financial terms that, all told, will be €1 billion. Per capita it is one of the best interventions of any country in Europe.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-07-02/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:09+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-02