Not a single affordable house will be provided over the next four years in counties Monaghan and Cavan, which I represent. That is not speculation or a guess on my part. It is the target number of affordable houses the Government has set for my constituency. Some might say that at least there finally is a housing target the Government will meet. In fact, it is a scandalous statement of reality. The Minister's response or justification, in essence, will be that house prices are not expensive enough in those counties…

Brilliant, having given developers a second bailout.

I was watching.

If the Minister speaks nonsense, he will be challenged on it.

If we are to take the Minister's remarks on their own I am sure the vast majority of people would say they are all laudable aspirations. When people are in government they have to be judged on the results of their words and actions and here are the results of what the Minister, the Green Party and the Government managed to do in recent weeks. The amount of turf that will be extracted and sold in Ireland in 2021 will be significantly higher than in 2020. That is thanks to the Minister and his actions. Many people wh…

The Government has allocated just 60 minutes for the Finance (Covid-19 and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2022. This is an important Bill. A number of Opposition amendments have been tabled. Sinn Féin tabled amendments that would, for example, reverse the Government-imposed increase in the price of home heating oil that came into place last Sunday and, further, reduce it by €118. The amendments would also lead to a reduction in the cost of petrol, diesel and agri-diesel. These are important amendments and, regardle…

On this week's business, an hour is not sufficient to discuss the Finance (Covid-19 and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2022.

The Taoiseach regularly states that we need time for legislation. Today, there is a legislative Bill coming before the House to which several amendments have been proposed but only 60 minutes have been allowed to debate them. We will not get through the first amendment. We need to have time to discuss these things.

Yes.

There was not. The debate was also guillotined.

There is a need for comprehensive debate.

Many people are still reeling from the fact that in the middle of a cost-of-living emergency, the Government has further increased the costs of home heating oil and other fuels this week. Imagine how those families felt when they learned in this morning's Irish Independent that the Government provided a mechanism for millionaires, with net assets of millions, to put off paying taxes during the Covid pandemic. Why is it that the Government can always find schemes to benefit wealthy people? In this instance, it allow…

Workers were not able to warehouse their tax owed.

So the answer to the question is "No".

"No" is your answer.

You increased the cost of home heating oil this week.

I thank the Rural Independent Group for bringing this motion to the floor and allowing us have an opportunity to discuss carbon tax. I was very interested to listen to the Minister of State's response. It was useful also to be able to read it and the justification for the carbon tax. The term "behavioural change" is not used once. When the carbon tax was introduced behavioural change was the entire premise on which it was sold. It has now switched from being a behavioural change mechanism because it clearly does no…

At a recent meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach I challenged the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, in respect of agri-diesel and the fact that the Government had announced, to much fanfare, a meagre 2 cent reduction in the cost of agri-diesel but intended, on 1 May, to increase it again. The Minister justified that move but has now recognised that farmers and farm contractors in Ireland would rightly refuse to accept such a pittance. While there has…

What about home heating oil?

We never said that.