Professor John FitzGerald:

I would have liked legislation stating that the carbon tax will be €26 per tonne in 2032 and then specify up to €80 thereafter and so on. The precedent for this is corporation tax. Going back decades, the Government said corporation tax would fall to 12.5% ten years hence. Of course, one Oireachtas cannot bind the next Oireachtas so it does not give us a guarantee. However, given the commitment to this in the committee report, I anticipate that if it was enshrined in legislation, it might even make it easier for the next Government, whatever its composition. Instead of making the decision to introduce a carbon tax, the Government could simply do nothing and the tax would rise in line with the recommendation. That is how I would do it.