Dr. Tricia Keilthy:

To be clear, in our submission we said we would favour investment in measures to tackle energy poverty in advance of increasing the carbon tax but that if the carbon tax is increased, we would favour recycling revenues via maximum social welfare rates and tax credits. What is important for us is that while some people may not be worse off after that recycling process - they might be slightly better off - there will still be people whom Society of St. Vincent de Paul members will visit who have heat escaping through their windows and ceiling, whose children are having respiratory problems, who cannot afford to fill their oil tanks and who are reliant on solid fuel. What we are saying, therefore, is that we need to start seeing measures to tackle energy poverty as part of the solution to climate change. At the moment we are seeing this as just a barrier to climate action but it needs to be seen as part of the solution. We have to see some of the measures we have proposed as part of that climate action movement as well. That is really important.