INDEPENDENT Ireland TD for County Limerick Richard O’Donoghue has challenged Taoiseach Micheál Martin to a live debate around the increase in taxation on fuel.
Speaking in Dáil Éireann, the Limerick politician was of the view that the Government should cap the price of fuel from which it takes tax.
“It is the same as income tax for every worker in this country. At the moment, it is €1.92 for the haulage sector. Minus the VAT, that gives you €1.56. The Government has put a package in place for which most of them will probably not be able to qualify because most of them are under pressure. It is not only householders who are arrears, but they are also in arrears. The bus companies and everyone is now in arrears,” Deputy O’Donoghue claimed.
The Taoiseach questioned the use of the word ‘arrears’, to which the Independent TD explained how they are in arrears on repayments for their trucks and tax arrears and cannot qualify for the Government’s package.
“The bottom line is that because of the measures we took on 13 April, the percentage of the taxation component of the price of a litre of Euro-Super 95 petrol is set to fall to 44 per cent compared with 58 per cent at the end of March,” Taoiseach Micheál Martin replied.
“The measures we have brought in have de facto significantly reduced the tax component of the price of fuel. Our overall package was about €750million. The cost of that package, I acknowledge, is €670million because we would gain about €82million in the VAT component of it. That deals with this idea that we are getting more back.”
Deputy O’Donoghue suggested that the Taoiseach had clearly never been involved in business as he did not understand stability and forecasting.
“Everything that he discusses is the package. Is there one package there for the working person in this country who is travelling? The Taoiseach is talking about 2.3 million vehicles. He mentioned road hauliers. Road hauliers, in this package, are 17 per cent of the transport network in this country. There is the Irish trucking haulage. Until this package was introduced, you did not get a subsidy if you were drawing your own goods. Now, they are included in this package. This is what I am talking about,” Deputy O’Donoghue said.
The Taoiseach accused him of presenting a “falsehood”.
To this, Deputy O’Donoghue said he would do a live debate with the Taoiseach to answer his claims.
“There you go. Live – the two of us. Live debate. Come on,” he argued.
The Taoiseach fired back pointing out that Deputy O’Donoghue “was involved in the protests”.
On a point order, Deputy O’Donoghue said that he went down and negotiated as a public representative.
“You had someone on the live airwaves who has misled the public,” he fumed.
In conclusion, the Taoiseach said: “I have worked with the Deputy before. He is doing a lot of shouting and roaring here today in the Chamber. He has asked me about different things in the past, plenty of times, as a Dáil deputy, and I have responded to him. I treated him courteously. All I am saying is that I have no difficulty discussing with the Deputy at any time.”