Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As we know, this is a budgetary oversight committee and I do not want to overstep our remit.

We all accept our responsibility to ensure budgets provide for and acknowledge the cost implications of meaningful policies to arrest and decrease carbonisation. The Fianna Fáil-Green Party Government began that process by implementing carbon tax in the first place. The failure of Government in recent years has been in not ring-fencing the proceeds from that to incentivise alternative energy provision, retrofits and so forth.

The Climate Change Advisory Council was to give its opinion on how climate change can be best addressed in the forthcoming budget. Is that correct? It supports increasing carbon tax from €20 per tonne to €35 this year. Is that correct?