Tax Code
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-29
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Simon Harris (FG), Wicklow

The Deputy has described his job as he views it. It is of course his job to hold me to account in this House. It is also our job, every now and again, to try to work collaboratively on different issues. We will not agree on all of it and that is fine and healthy but we agree that we are living through a cost-of-living crisis, that the cost of kerosene and energy is very high, that we need to look at measures to try to assist people and that even when we do that there are global factors.
Not everybody is equally affected. We all know that and that is why targeted measures through the fuel allowance are also important to reach those most at risk of fuel poverty. Not everyone is at risk of that. The cost of living is real for lots of people but some people are acutely at risk of fuel poverty. Trying to reach them in the here and now is important too. We showed an ability to do that somewhat last year with the fuel allowance changes. That helped people. Enabling people to get that lump sum option helps to fill the home heating tank as well. There are now about 470,000 households getting the fuel allowance as well, so it is not insignificant. I take the Deputy's point. We published the tax strategy group paper this summer to have an informed discussion on the carbon tax trajectory and how it applies to certain products. We will bring forward our specific proposals next week.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-29/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:00:59+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-29