Dáil fuel row as Aontú highlights 89-year-old woman’s €860 home heating bill

An 89-year-old woman paid €860 for less than half a tank of home heating oil, equivalent to three weeks’ income for her “and it’s unlikely to do her to the other side of Christmas”, the Dáil has heard.Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín said the Government takes €250 of that payment in tax, adding that it was “an incredible price for any elderly individual living on their own in this country to have to pay just for a staple good”.It now costs workers more than €100 to fill a tank and €45 of that goes in Government taxes, he added.Accusing the Government of “gouging” the public, he said fuel was not a luxury good but a staple people could not do without. However, the Government’s policy objective was “to increase the price of fuel”.READ MOREThe Meath West TD was speaking during an Independent Ireland debate on fuel, energy and carbon tax relief. Introducing the motion, Independent Ireland TD Michael Fitzmaurice said the Government made €85 million available for fuel support for farmers and agricultural contractors, but only about €26 million of this allocation has been claimed to date. This left “substantial funding available which should continue to be used for the purpose for which it was allocated”.[ Over-70s urged to check eligibility for energy costs payment from StateOpens in new window ]The Roscommon-Galway TD said the European Union’s €15 million assistance for increased agricultural input and fertiliser costs was not enough “to meet the scale of the additional costs currently being experienced by Irish farmers”.“Another round of the fuel support needs to be given, because if it’s not, there will be consequences in the agriculture and farming circles”.Independent Ireland TD Ken O’Flynn said if he drove his car on to a forecourt in Malta he would pay €1.20 for a litre of diesel. In Ireland he would have to pay about €2.20. “How do you sustain that for the guy that’s living in Youghal and has to drive to Cork city or Ringaskiddy” where there is no bus or train service, he asked.But Labour environment spokesman Ciarán Ahern hit out at Independent Ireland and said the “climate crisis is not mentioned once in this motion. That is just wild.”He said the current energy crisis “has been directly caused by Donald Trump”, who Independent Ireland “welcomed with open arms into this country a week ago”. Ahern claimed some TDs “tried to ape and assimilate” the US president’s politics.[ Irish wholesale electricity prices climb almost 77% in August amid global energy shockOpens in new window ]The Dublin South-West TD said “Trump’s illegal, reckless, pointless war on Iran has brought us here, not the carbon tax. “Donald Trump, Mark Zuckerberg and their billionaire class are the only economic migrants into this country who are actually responsible for our problems. “But Independent Ireland can’t find it within yourselves to criticise them. You can’t push down on them. Where in this motion are the proposals for attacks on the excess profits of energy companies? “Where is the support for a moratorium on data centres which are being added to which are adding to household bills and being built to placate the tech billionaires? There are none, because these are the guys that you want to cosy up to.” Independent TD Richard O’Donoghue rounded on Labour. He said while it supported carbon tax and when in Government introduced water charges and property tax and then cut child benefit, rent allowance and fuel grants. “And then you supported the USC. And these are the same people that tried to lecture me here today.”He had no problem meeting Trump because of US investment in Ireland the 300,000 jobs in US firms here. “Do I agree what’s happening in the Middle East? One-hundred per cent not.” O’Donoghue said electric vehicles account for just 4 per cent of vehicles. “That’s 96 per cent of people drive fossil fuel vehicles” who are being taxed “every single day, even though they are taxed at work”.Minister of State for Agriculture Niall Collins said the motion did not fully consider the array of supports, implemented by Government, one of the largest in the EU.He said: “We are now examining different options available in relation to the cost of home heating oil ahead of the budget.”