Home Heating Oil (Emergency Mineral Oil Tax Reduction) Bill 2026: Second Stage [Private Members]
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-22
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Natasha Newsome Drennan (SF), Carlow-Kilkenny

Yesterday, when I was in Kilkenny city the price of diesel was a staggering €2.16 a litre. These prices are crippling ordinary people right across the State. The rising cost of fuel has a knock-on effect on nearly every aspect of our lives, be it getting to work, taking the kids to school, driving them to training or simply doing the weekly shopping. Ordinary people are being squeezed tighter and tighter. We need to call out the double standards at play by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. When the bankers wanted a break, they got a sweetheart deal to pay just 1% tax. When the big property developers looked for a break, they got mega tax cuts. The Government did the same for the likes of Starbucks and McDonald's, but when ordinary working people or the elderly look for help, they are told it is just not possible. It is time the Government started to stand with ordinary people, not with the elites. A fill of home heating oil is up over €250 in the past two weeks. No one can afford to fully refill a tank any more. Every week I hear from people across Carlow and Kilkenny who are struggling, especially the elderly and those living with a disability - people with little to no alternative to heating their home with home heating oil. They are the people who do not have the thousands of euro they would need to carry out a retrofit. The motion we have brought before the Dáil to remove the carbon tax from home heating oil will help those people. It would make a real noticeable difference. It is time to give people certainty and hope as we head into what without doubt will be a very tough winter for so many people.
The Minister of State said the Government has helped people. I can tell her that people are just not feeling it. If the Government is to get a clap on the back, the only thing it could be for would be putting record numbers in arrears and record numbers in homelessness. That is nothing to be looked up to.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-22/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:49+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-22