Financial Resolution No. 1: Mineral Oil Tax
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-14
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Martin Heydon (FG), Kildare South

In responding to the debate, I thank Deputies for raising the points they did. I will go through some of them. Deputy Doherty started off with a fascination with ordinary people. I am not sure who the extraordinary people are who he is not talking about. There are only ordinary people. They are all ordinary people. Somehow he has a monopoly on understanding what ordinary people have to go through and do not. He talked about standing in the farmers' kitchen and understanding how much pressure they were under and about the fishers and how much pressure they were under. One thing struck me. In his discussions with them, did he point out to the farmer the €100 million package that is being delivered this week or the 7.4 cent cut on excise this week that Sinn Féin seems opposed to that is there to help? Did he explain to the fisher about the €5 million per month of support there will be from March to July as part of the package that has been agreed and that there is no mineral oil tax on fuel for fishers because the State heavily subsidises mineral oil because we value what fishers do? No, he did not, because what he prefers to do as an Opposition spokesperson, as Sinn Féin wants, is to keep everyone whipped up, keep telling them there is a bogeyman over there and someone to blame.
It is great to see Deputy Doherty back in the House. I was just highlighting how he misled the Dáil when he said a 4 cent cut will not wash for farmers when the cut on green diesel for farmers is 27.4 cent, comprising the 7.4 cent we are agreeing in these motions and the subsidy of 20 cent per litre on green diesel there will be in the coming months. The Government has the back of farmers, fishers and foresters and we will support them.
Deputy Nash raised that there is nothing here for the ordinary worker and Deputy Cian O'Callaghan talked about individual workers he deals with and the constituents who have come to him and the real impact on people's lives. One of the workers he referenced could not afford meat.

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Retrieved: 2026-09-21T01:01:07+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-14