by Alan Jacques
ACCESS by Dáil Deputies to the car park at Leinster House is to be reviewed after County Limerick TD Richard O’Donoghue pulled up in a truck last month.
And following a report by RTÉ News that the issues is to be investigated by the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission, Deputy O’Donoghue got all revved up over the move.
“They have little else to be doing, this grand Houses of the Oireachtas Commission. I merely drove a truck cab to work; I’ve seen others bring vans and the like into the Leinster House car park.
“It shouldn’t matter a damn how I, or any other Deputy, travel to and from work. The cab actually fitted neatly into a parking slot anyway,” he told the Limerick Post.
The Rural Ireland Independent TD claims that the issue was to deflect attention away from the crippling costs inflicted by the Government on ordinary motorists, an issue he highlighted on the streets of Dublin, and in the Dáil on several occasions over the last few weeks.
Deputy O’Donoghue also claims that the Government is now raking in around €12 million a month from petrol and diesel taxes in Limerick alone.
Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe confirmed that the State’s tax receipt on such fuel sales have more doubled from February to October.
“The Minister stressed the increased revenue from the pumps is due to increased consumption rather than tax hikes. This is a blatant lie,” the Limerick TD declared.
“The Government, like every other administration in a normal functioning society, should immediately set about reducing its take on the price of a litre of petrol and diesel from already struggling drivers. And this can be done immediately if only the Government would do what’s morally right.
“In little Limerick, the Government will collect not far off €150 million this year in tax at petrol pumps, which is a criminal amount.
“There is likely to be no let up as additional tax at the pumps will come into effect from January 1, and the Green Party agenda will guzzle away what ever few cent people have left with further carbon taxes at every opportunity until there is absolutely nothing left over, and families will be forced to live very frugal lives.
“This Government is most certainly anti-rural,” he concluded.
