TRANSPORT Minister Eamon Ryan “has gone from being Green to yellow”.
Those were the words of County Limerick politician Richard O’Donoghue during a motion on supporting household energy bills in the Dáil.
According to the Rural Ireland Independent TD, the Green Party leader “is out the door as fast as his legs can carry him” when he sees Deputy O’Donoghue and his supporters coming.
“He knows we speak the truth. We are self-employed, so we understand what the carbon tax and energy crisis can do to businesses and every person in this country. That is why he runs from us and hides when we are in the chamber — he knows he will have to listen to the truth,” Deputy O’Donoghue opined.
His rural group colleague Deputy Michael Healy-Rae hit out that thousands of tonnes of mulch is coming into Foynes from Brazil and transported through the country to replace peat Ireland had previously been producing.
Deputy O’Donoghue deemed this practice as “nonsensical”.
”But the Government closed the various factories that delivered energy. Now, we are transporting wood-chip around the country. The Government has no concept whatsoever of what that means,” he said.
“Someone can go to Spain and buy a barrel of gas for €16. It costs €45 in Ireland. Is Ireland not an EU state? Ask someone in any other European country what the price of fuel is there and people in Ireland will still pay more.”
O’Donoghue then hit out at Sinn Fein.
“Sinn Féin voted to increase the carbon tax. Six months later, it tabled a motion but would not back our motion to get rid of carbon tax. Now, Sinn Féin has tabled this motion. It is not a bad one, but Sinn Féin is trying to have butter on both sides of its bread,” Deputy O’Donoghue claimed.
“None of its members are self-employed, so they do not understand what the working person does. It is not like they have employees – people who want to feed their families and go to work in the morning. That is the difference between the Rural Independent Group and parties that claim in the Dáil they know what they are doing, even though none of them understands what it is like to be an employer.
“None of them understands what it is like to live in rural areas and support the local economy. That is what is wrong – we have too many people trying to have butter on both sides of their bread and talking out of both sides of their mouths,” he concluded.
