Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I have to make bits of myself here tonight. I have two questions, the first of which is for ICTU. I thank Mr. Joyce for the interesting presentation. I want to tease out some of the detail of what he has said about the just transition in so far as it relates to the Bord na Móna workers. Three examples of countries where transition deals for workers were done - Australia, Spain and Germany - have been cited as a kind of template, but no detail has been given. Does Mr. Joyce have detail of the deal? He gave a small bit of detail of the €250 million deal that has been agreed by Government employers in respect of the coal-mining industry in Spain. Given that the Spanish coal-mining industry is massive, €250 million does not sound like a massive figure. Could such examples be applied to the sort of thing about which Mr. Noone was talking? What sort of redundancy payments will be made? Will the workers who have been transitioning over to other types of work retain their pay, conditions and pensions etc.? That sort of detail is being demanded by workers in Roscommon, Dublin and Clare who want to know whether they will have security in their pay, terms, hours and pensions. If they are to be made redundant, they need to know they will be looked after properly. If we do not get this right, we are in for a pile of trouble. If we do not bring people with us and treat them fairly, we are in for a pile of trouble because we do not have a lot of time.

My second question relates to the carbon tax itself. Several references have been made to it.

What has happened in France with the yellow vests, the gilets jaunes, has really changed the narrative on this. For example, the Taoiseach, Deputy Leo Varadkar, said in the Dáil today that we have to be careful about how we introduce the measure. This is the first time this was said. The yellow-vest protests and the climb-back of Macron's Government have had a real impact. There is probably a lesson in this for the Bord na Móna workers in that if they want just transition, they will probably have to fight for it rather than expect it to be delivered.

On the carbon tax, is it not now time to say the carbon tax has to be delivered as a tax on profit and wealth rather than a tax on ordinary people, who are not benefitting from just transition and did not create the climate change problem?