An independent TD has branded a government decision to reduce excise duty on green diesel by 2c/L as “a scandal”.
Danny Healy-Rae said that the temporary cuts to excise duty announced today (Wednesday, March 9) by Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe were “not nearly enough”.
In response to record fuel prices, excise duty will be cut by 20c/L for petrol, 15c/L for diesel and 2c/L for marked gas oil or ‘green’ diesel.
These reductions will take effect from midnight tonight and will remain in place until August 31, 2022.
However, Danny Healy-Rae believes that the reduction in green diesel excise is inadequate.
“What good is two cents? If you saw it on the ground now you wouldn’t pick it up, a child wouldn’t pick it up.
“Farmers and industrial set-ups can’t afford to put the diesel in their lorries. And the question I am asking them [the government] is what are they going to do with the drivers? Are they going to tell them to get out of the lorries and draw the dole?”
Healy-Rae added that a reduction of 15c/L in excise will do little to offset the cost of diesel which has risen to €2.20/L in some places.
The independent Kerry TD claimed that the government does not want to take further action as they “are afraid they’ll upset the Greens”.
“This Green government is failing the country miserably and failing people that need to work. They won’t be able to go to work now. We know already that machines and trucks are stopped.”
Healy-Rae asked why Ireland could not put a cap on fuel prices, as has been done in other countries.
“I heard the Taoiseach in the Dáil saying that they had to get permission from Europe. The other countries that have this measure taken, they are in Europe too. What’s different about our little country?”
Meanwhile, the Kerry TD has called for the peat-fired power stations at Shannonbridge in Co. Offaly and Lanesborough in Co. Longford to be reopened.
The facilities were closed in 2019 as part of the government’s transition to cleaner energy.
Healy-Rae said that the stations were “hastily closed down in the name of climate change” with “no alternative in place”.
“I am asking the government in the name of energy security to open up the two power plants they closed immediately. It’s in our own remit. It’s turf that’s in the ground,” the TD stated.