What about the people?

I thank Deputy Kerrane and Sinn Féin for giving us the opportunity to talk about this issue. I have no personal gripe with the Minister, but the Government has annoyed and upset many people in rural Ireland over the past fortnight. What has been done is unfair. The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, must now realise that what he is trying to do to the people of rural Ireland is blackguarding. He is here now. He has tried to blackguard the people of rural Ireland. People can die of the cold as well as because of bad or sm…

The Taoiseach says he and his Government will implement another carbon tax on 1 May. People everywhere cannot believe that, notwithstanding the savage cost of fuel, that the Taoiseach would even consider raising it further. The Taoiseach knows it was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. This is the price that the country and the people of Ireland, young and old, have to pay so that the Taoiseach will have the continued support of the Green Party to remain Taoiseach. The Government has already torn down Bord …

That could give them a small bit of financial help to start them off. If they were paid for the extra energy, it would make a huge difference to relieve the energy crisis in this country.

0.31%.

It is to do with the Taoiseach.

He is keeping the Taoiseach in government.

Yes, it is political. It is to keep the Taoiseach in power until the end of the year and to make him Tánaiste next year and to keep the Ministers behind in place. That is what it is. The tail is wagging the dog. The dogs in the street see and know that. The Taoiseach has not answered or explained what is going on in Russia, China or the US. They are using massive amounts of oil, diesel, coal and everything else. The Government would not let us cut a sod of turf here if it could do so. There are drains cut across th…

He does know it because Bord na Móna has done it under instruction from someone. The Government is not being fair with the people. It will close the country down at the behest of the Minister for the Environment, Climate Change and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan. It is the Minister who is dictating the policy. I know there are good and fair-minded people in Fianna Fáil and in the other parties. The Taoiseach is not listening to them, however. He is listening to one man, namely, the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, a…

There were climate changes from the very start.

We have always played our part. We are playing more than our part now.

It is easy to put on a carbon tax. That is all the Government is doing.

The Taoiseach does whatever the Minister tells him to do.

The Taoiseach is trying his best.

He is trying his best.

The Acting Chairman will support it as well.

Will we be let cut it?

We won’t get felling licences.

What about the Chinese and the Russians? They are doing nothing.

I apologise a Leas-Cheann Comhairle. One of the members of that advisory council, one of the Minister's own Greens, Dr. something-or-other, has said this is not the time for another carbon tax increase. One of his own-----