An impassioned speech by Independent TD for Limerick County, Richard O’Donoghue, has gone viral after being posted to Tik-Tok by the Irish Daily Times.
The video has racked up almost 400,000 views so far.
The TD said that people should understand how the government tax on fuel – including carbon levies – were hitting rural people hardest. People living in rural areas tend to spend more on petrol and are more reliant on private transport.
The Government Taxation on fuel ⛽️💰@irishdailytimes
@https://vm.tiktok.com/ZM8NTrT9h/ pic.twitter.com/aOs4D0hOKc— Richard O'Donoghue TD (@RichardODonoghu) October 13, 2021
He said the government was neglecting rural Ireland and accused them of being “the most robbing, thieving people – and you’re so anti-rural,” he said. “You say you give to the vulnerable, you give on one hand and you take back double on the other side.”
He said that for every €100 of petrol, the supplier gets €39.92, while the retailer gets €3.08 – and the Government “that has nothing to do with getting it into the car”, gets “a whopping €57”.
“I often hear people say ‘the shopkeeper is robbing us for fuel’,” he said. “The shopkeeper is not robbing us for fuel, you are,” he told the government TDs. He claimed that the money being levied on rural people was then being used to provide services for cities.