Mineral Oil Tax: Financial Resolution
Dail Éireann — 2026-08-28
============================================================

Michael Collins (II), Cork South-West

The time limit on this today is very unfair. We tabled constructive amendments, which will not be listened to today and are being kicked out, effectively.
I have been talking to the farming sector, which is very seriously concerned because the previous cuts, which we supported, also included a rebate for farmers. As that is going to be kicked away this time, the farmers are going to get an awful kick back on this and are furious. They are talking about protesting. I am trying to keep the peace like we tried to before. The Government has forgotten the people out there - the farmers and the contractors - who are struggling at present anyway. The Government has turned its back on them. They are really angry over it this morning. They are asking the Tánaiste to look at this again. I think there is still enough time to do that. The Tánaiste said he is looking to give people certainty for September and October but what about November and December? What about the hundreds of thousands who cannot pay their electricity bills? They have no certainty. Putting up the price of fuel again in the coming months will be a further hit. The Tánaiste also talked about electric vehicles and solar panels. People want to change but they cannot. A grant of €1,800 if you want to set up solar panels on your home to alleviate some of the cost of electricity is paltry in comparison to what is offered in other countries in Europe. We do not have enough time.

---

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/2026-08-28/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-31T01:00:52+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-08-28