Does the Minister accept that the nurse pulling up to a petrol station, putting diesel into her car and paying €2.07 per litre, the price I was seeing last night, is paying more excise duty on that fuel than is required under EU law? It is a simple question.

I am asking about diesel. Under European law, the minimum excise duty to be imposed on her diesel is €330 per 1,000 litres. She is paying more than that. That is the reality. The issue here is that the resources are in the State. The Minister knows that. The money is there. The money is there to help people. It is there to help hauliers, nurses and gardaí. It is there to help the people but the Minister is refusing to do that. His head has been seriously stuck in the sand for the past two weeks. People power had to…

I was disappointed when you threatened them with the Army.

The Minister steadfastly refused to cut excise duty on green diesel, despite all of the evidence and the knowledge that farmers are under serious pressure. The reason is that the excise duty on green diesel is carbon tax. It is the carbon component. Does the Tánaiste know something? A farmer does not care what it is called. He does not care whether it is excise, carbon or whatever else. He just knows that the price has gone from 97 cent a litre up to €1.80 and, as Minister for Finance, the Tánaiste is refusing to c…

It would cost €14 million a month to actually remove carbon tax from green diesel, the cost of which has gone through the roof for farmers. Talk to agricultural contractors and talk to ordinary farmers. Talk to the farmers who are telling me that this scheme, which we have not seen as the applications are not even open yet because this a Government that dithers, delays and only acts when it is pushed into things, is going to create more paperwork. What the Government will not listen to is that it has the ability to…

The people backed me and-----

Talk to the people and the Tánaiste will get that message very clearly.

You are living in this bubble too long, Simon. Go and talk to ordinary people.

For the past two elections, we have had more seats that Fine Gael.

The Minister needs to get his head out of the clouds and sand and talk to ordinary people. He can pontificate all he wants, point fingers at me and say I am isolated and people do not back me in here. I do not give a damn because I know that I am on the side of ordinary Irish people. I know that people are being pushed to the pin of their collar. I have met them on the streets and in homes across the State over the past number of weeks. I know they need action and leadership and they are not getting it from the Min…

I am not asking the Minister. He should not be stupid. He should not be silly.

I am sure the Minister will not listen to this either.

He always listens. The last time the Minister listened the Government was trying to turn the Army on our own people. That is the listening. That is the reaction we got from Government.

Let me just say this here-----

Some 750,000 households across the State rely on home heating oil to heat their homes. Last night, at a public meeting attended by hundreds in Galway to discuss the cost-of-living crisis, I spoke to a carer who went into a home of an elderly woman. She worked all her life, paid her taxes and did everything right and apologised for the house being so cold because the heating had run out. The Minister refuses to cut excise duty on home heating oil to support household like hers, along with 750,000 other households. W…

I do not want it suspended; I want it cancelled.

This is the problem. The Minister does not understand the scale of the crisis or the lived experience of many people across the State. Before we had a fuel crisis, 320,000 families could not pay their electricity bills. Families were pushed to the pin of the collar because of increases in grocery prices, rents and insurance and childcare costs that were like a second mortgage. A generation felt home ownership was outside of the reach because of Government policies. The fuel crisis, brought on by external factors, h…

The Tánaiste's mantra again speaks to me of the fact that he does not understand where people are at. Does the Tánaiste think the woman who wrote to me does not know what she is earning? Of course she knows what she is earning but she also knows that the cost of electricity has gone through the roof. She also knows that the weekly shop is a lot more expensive than it was last week, that the cost of childcare is another mortgage and that rents are increasing. Now she also knows that her house is cold for two weeks b…

What is she supposed to do? Should she wear another jacket or tighten her belt? What advice do you have? Should she put on another coat?

That is nonsense.