Grace O'Sullivan (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

It is deeply frustrating that nine years after a previous Government introduced the carbon tax we have issues including ensuring low-income households benefit rather than lose from the carbon tax and that the carbon tax is complemented. Other policies are still being treated as conundrums to be solved or works in progress. Two decades ago, Feasta, the Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability, developed its proposal for cap and share and has repeatedly brought it to the attention of policy makers ever since. In essence, it proposes that the revenue from carbon be returned to people on an individual basis. As low-income households use far fewer fossil fuels they would be net beneficiaries of cap and share. In 2008, Comhar Sustainable Development Council commissioned a study on cap and share proposals. Similar initiatives, such as cap and dividend, are prominent in policy discussions in the US. All of this is in a situation where the carbon price needs to go well beyond the €40 per tonne to which the Department referred. Mr. Watt referred €100 per tonne in 2030.