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

I will make one comment. It is utterly frustrating. I have heard from the ESRI, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, the Money Advice and Budgeting Service, MABS, National Traveller MABS and Age Action Ireland. I have seen their material. What the Department was asked to do was to use all their empirical evidence and material and present us with a report. It has failed to do that and within days, the Minister will increase carbon tax in the absence of the Department doing that piece of work. I am not asking Mr. Collins to repeat the good work these women have done in identifying where fuel poverty lies, how it is measured and possibly the extent of it, although that is not an absolute. He was asked to give us a report and he has refused to do so.

Will he please answer on what he intends to do with priority recommendation No. 4, which is to give us a measure of what potentially could be raised by a tax on the profits of the fossil fuel and related industries?