Finance Bill 2026: From the Seanad
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-08
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Pearse Doherty (SF), Donegal

I will press the amendment. To be clear, because the Minister of State would like us to forget what happened, this is the Bill coming back from the Seanad. In case people do not know what has happened here, this Bill has already passed through the Dáil. It is very unusual when a Bill has to come back into the Dáil after it has been passed. The reason is that the Government has had to change what it was trying to put into law, which was the 34 cent increase in August. It had to change that because of the pressure we in Sinn Féin applied. The Minister of State can shake his head all he wants. There was also a fear among the Government of the risen people and of people taking to the streets again and saying, "We are having none of it, because this is a Government that doesn't understand the pressure we're under." The Government was trying to put into law, in black and white, an increase of 34 cent. The Government actually passed that in this House, with the support, unfortunately, of some of the Opposition parties.
That does not take away, however, from what is in this Bill, because all the Government has done is kick the can down the road. Thirty-four cent is still going to go onto the price of diesel. It will just happen in different stages and it will be fully on the price of diesel by 1 December. I am saying this very clearly because I would not be able to go back to my constituency in Donegal, hold my head up, talk to people who elected me to have their backs, be their voice and stand up for them and say that I voted to increase the price of diesel by 34 cent. It will not happen in Sinn Féin's name. I will press the amendment because there is an alternative and I ask Deputies across the House to support the amendment and, more important, to support hard-working people across the State.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-08/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:07+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-08