Finance Bill 2026: From the Seanad
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-08
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Robert Troy (FF), Longford-Westmeath

The point I am making quite clearly is that there is a mechanism. That is why we have two Chambers in the Oireachtas. There is a mechanism to use the Seanad to amend legislation and to bring it back here. I was abundantly clear that evening with the Deputy in the debate that this situation was being kept under review and that there would be no cliff edge. What we were doing was the prudent thing to do. We were waiting to see how international oil prices were fluctuating over the last two weeks before we made a final call on how we would phase out the temporary measures. As a Government, we knew exactly what we were doing. It was not because of what the Deputy said here. It was fully planned that we would use the legislative mechanism that is there to introduce it in the Seanad, assess the international prices at the time and take a responsible and prudent decision, reaffirming that there would be no cliff edge and that there would be a phased reintroduction over a period of time. That is the decision the Government has taken. Neither the Deputy nor I can say with any certainty what way oil prices will be on 1 September.
However, what I can say is that based on our track record over the last number of months, we will continue to monitor the situation. We will be back here after the summer recess. I do not know about Deputy Doherty, but I certainly will not be off for eight weeks. He continuously pointed that out. You would swear the only people going on holidays were on this side of the House.
The Government will continue to meet. Work will continue ongoing, as I am sure Deputy Doherty will also. We will monitor the situation and we can, as we have in the past, use opportunities to make further interventions as necessary. Neither Deputy Doherty or I can tell with any certainty where the prices are or where they are going to be on 1 September or 1 October.
It is worth noting, if we look at the international market today, that Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Portugal all have noticeably higher prices at the petrol pumps than we have today because of the intervention we have taken. It is also worth noting that the interventions this Government has taken, although the Deputy may not agree with all of them, per capita have been some of the most generous and largest interventions of any of our European counterparts on a problem that is not unique to Ireland but is across the globe.

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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