Fuel, Energy and Carbon Tax Relief: Motion [Private Members]
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-23
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Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (SF), Cork South-Central

Workers, families and everyone across this country are facing a situation in which everything seems to be going up. It is not just homelessness, house prices and rents but also the cost of petrol, childcare, home heating oil and electricity. It is absolutely everything. There is not a household in this country that are not looking at their bills, trying to figure out how to get to the end of the week or the month, depending on how they are paid, because everything has to be accounted for.
During this debate and previous debates, the Government has trumpeted the various things it has done but people know well that it had to be dragged kicking and screaming to do an awful lot of those things and that those things have not gone anywhere near far enough. To be honest, I suspect that, if there had not been enough public pressure and if the international circumstances had not changed, we would be looking at some of the duties being added back on. We also know that not a single cent has come off the cost of home heating oil and that nothing has been done in relation to energy credits. The Government ignored warnings from the Opposition that, if it got rid of the energy credits, people would fall into arrears. Lo and behold, record numbers of people are now in arrears with their energy bills. It is not just us saying that; the energy regulator is saying so as well.
People are tackling issues all the time. Families are trying to deal with rents like they have never seen before and childcare costs that are absolutely crippling them. The Minister of State needs to act on this. He needs to deal with the issue of home heating oil at last. People have seen huge increases. We need more action on the cost of living in general and on the cost of childcare, education and healthcare. It is right across the board. The way that this State is set up means that middle-income earners who pay taxes are not only not getting support but are being asked to pay a second time. Through voluntary contributions, GP fees and third-level fees, the cost-of-living crisis comes back to bite them every time.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-23/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:49+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-23