{"id":633691,"date":"2026-09-23T17:36:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T17:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/633691\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T17:36:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T17:36:10","slug":"dail-fuel-row-as-aontu-highlights-89-year-old-womans-e860-home-heating-bill-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/633691\/","title":{"rendered":"D\u00e1il fuel row as Aont\u00fa highlights 89-year-old woman\u2019s \u20ac860 home heating bill \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

An 89-year-old woman paid \u20ac860 for less than half a tank of home heating oil, equivalent to three weeks\u2019 income for her \u201cand it\u2019s unlikely to do her to the other side of Christmas\u201d, the D\u00e1il<\/a> has heard.<\/p>\n

Aont\u00fa<\/a> leader Peadar T\u00f3ib\u00edn<\/a> said the Government<\/a> takes \u20ac250 of that payment in tax<\/a>, adding that it was \u201can incredible price for any elderly individual living on their own in this country to have to pay just for a staple good\u201d.<\/p>\n

It now costs motorists more than \u20ac100 to fill their car\u2019s tank and \u20ac45 of that goes in Government taxes, he added.<\/p>\n

Accusing the Government of \u201cgouging\u201d the public, he said fuel was not a luxury good but a staple people could not do without. However, the Government\u2019s policy objective was \u201cto increase the price of fuel\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Meath West<\/a> TD was speaking during an Independent Ireland<\/a> debate on fuel, energy<\/a> and carbon tax<\/a> relief. <\/p>\n

Introducing the motion, Independent Ireland TD Michael Fitzmaurice<\/a> said the Government made \u20ac85 million available for fuel support for farmers and agricultural contractors, but only about \u20ac26 million of this allocation has been claimed to date. <\/p>\n

This left \u201csubstantial funding available which should continue to be used for the purpose for which it was allocated\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Over-70s urged to check eligibility for energy costs payment from StateOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The Roscommon-Galway<\/a> TD said the European Union<\/a>\u2019s \u20ac15 million assistance for increased agricultural input and fertiliser costs was not enough \u201cto meet the scale of the additional costs currently being experienced by Irish farmers\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother round of the fuel support needs to be given, because if it\u2019s not, there will be consequences in the agriculture and farming circles\u201d.<\/p>\n

Independent Ireland TD Ken O\u2019Flynn said if he drove his car on to a forecourt in Malta he would pay \u20ac1.20 for a litre of diesel. In Ireland he would have to pay about \u20ac2.20. <\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you sustain that for the guy that\u2019s living in Youghal and has to drive to Cork city or Ringaskiddy\u201d where there is no bus or train service, he asked.<\/p>\n

But Labour<\/a> environment spokesman Ciar\u00e1n Ahern hit out at Independent Ireland and said the \u201cclimate crisis is not mentioned once in this motion. That is just wild.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the current energy crisis<\/a> \u201chas been directly caused by Donald Trump<\/a>\u201d, who Independent Ireland \u201cwelcomed with open arms into this country a week ago\u201d. <\/p>\n

Ahern claimed some TDs \u201ctried to ape and assimilate\u201d the US president\u2019s politics.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Irish wholesale electricity prices climb almost 77% in August amid global energy shockOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The Dublin South-West TD said \u201cTrump\u2019s illegal, reckless, pointless war on Iran has brought us here, not the carbon tax. <\/p>\n

\u201cDonald Trump, Mark Zuckerberg<\/a> and their billionaire class are the only economic migrants into this country who are actually responsible for our problems. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut Independent Ireland can\u2019t find it within yourselves to criticise them. You can\u2019t push down on them. Where in this motion are the proposals for attacks on the excess profits of energy companies? <\/p>\n

\u201cWhere is the support for a moratorium on data centres<\/a> 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.\u201d <\/p>\n

Independent TD Richard O\u2019Donoghue 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. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then you supported the USC<\/a>. And these are the same people that tried to lecture me here today.\u201d<\/p>\n

He had no problem meeting Trump because of US investment in Ireland the 300,000 jobs in US firms here. \u201cDo I agree what\u2019s happening in the Middle East? One-hundred per cent not.\u201d <\/p>\n

O\u2019Donoghue said electric vehicles<\/a> account for just 4 per cent of vehicles. \u201cThat\u2019s 96 per cent of people drive fossil fuel vehicles\u201d who are being taxed \u201cevery single day, even though they are taxed at work\u201d.<\/p>\n

Minister of State for Agriculture Niall Collins<\/a> said the motion did not fully consider the array of supports, implemented by Government, one of the largest in the EU.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWe are now examining different options available in relation to the cost of home heating oil ahead of the budget<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An 89-year-old woman paid \u20ac860 for less than half a tank of home heating oil, equivalent to three…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633692,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[16253,121361,943,15049,969,8856,5485,37635,5148,26934,1523,61,25919,60,6189,269055,170454,43,64474,17861,269056,5066,15740],"class_list":["post-633691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-aontu","tag-carbon-tax","tag-cost-of-living","tag-dail-eireann","tag-donald-trump","tag-electric-vehicles","tag-energy-costs","tag-energy-crisis","tag-european-union","tag-fuel-allowance","tag-government","tag-ie","tag-independent-ireland","tag-ireland","tag-labour-party","tag-meath-west-constituency","tag-michael-fitzmaurice","tag-news","tag-niall-collins","tag-peadar-toibin","tag-roscommon-galway-constituency","tag-tax","tag-usc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}