“People who are travelling to work from Cavan especially plasterers, plumbers, and electricians end up paying around €2000 a year on tolls. They don’t have any option to try and avoid this payment or any steps they can take to reduce this financial hardship. They have to travel for work” Senator Sarah O’Reilly
Workers in the hospitality industry and in other low paid sectors in Cavan Monaghan and across the country deserve more than patronising accolades on International Workers’ Day, and it would be more beneficial to them if the government addressed their low wages by reducing their punitive day-to-day expenses.
Raising the Issue in the Seanad today (Ist May) International Workers Day, Aontú Senator Sarah O’Reilly said.
“I understand the plight of workers in the hospitality industry better than most as I was a Chef’s Assistant and know only too well the long hours, the stress and the very low pay that these, and others in several other industries receive.
I highlighted International Workers’ Day in the Seanad and the high costs faced by workers in Cavan Monaghan, such as fuel, tolls, carbon taxes, fuel taxes, and poor road conditions for those who rely on road transport.
Tolls and fuel tax are not uncontrolled costs. These are costs that the government is in charge of.
The government took in a staggering 4 billion euro in fuel tax last year and of that figure 1.2 billion of it was carbon tax. Carbon tax adds 17c onto every litre of petrol and diesel. And these carbon taxes are going to keep increasing and increasing. The government is cashing in on the hardship of those who are simply trying to go to work, make a living and provide for themselves and their families.
Amazingly Aontú was the only party in the Dáil to vote against the Climate Action Bill, which paved the way for carbon tax under the last government. We knew that this would put immense financial pressure on people and that an alternative approach should have been taken.
It’s certainly not that the Carbon Tax is being used to improve the lot of road users
“We have desperate roads in my constituency of Cavan Monaghan. People are hammered with heavy taxes but not rewarded with either a good road infrastructure or an adequate public transport service. 3,000 people leave Cavan for Dublin each day with 2,855 Monaghan commuters travelling for more than an hour (CSO) and have to pay two toll fees up and two back on the M3. That is crazy. The taxpayer has paid for these toll roads over and over. It seems the Government will push and push the public until such time as they say stop.”
“Someone traveling to work from my own county of Cavan can pass six tolls in the return journey, all having increased toll charges. Many people in such a situation spend up to €2,000 on tolls in the year. They don’t have a rail option as there is no rail line into the county. In my town, we don’t have a direct bus option and buses on the direct route are notoriously unreliable and slow”. It is also unacceptable to expect commuters, with no other transport alternatives, to pay huge toll fees to travel from Cavan to Dublin only to sit for hours in traffic jams in Virginia. It is a huge penalty for rural communities to bear”.
Workers deserve and need more than claps and weasel words. They need real action and a government that is not only in touch but who genuinely cares about its people”.
