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

I agree with the last point made by Professor FitzGerald on the benefits of retrofitting local authority houses. I see this in my area and it is an extraordinary benefit to people.

I want to focus on the principle of carbon taxes. It is something of an accepted narrative that where countries have introduced a significant carbon tax, emissions have declined significantly. I put it to Professor FitzGerald that there are other explanations for the decline in emissions in some of the models we looked at, including British Colombia and Norway. Some of it had to do with industry switching from coal to gas, outsourcing to other industries or periods of recession when manufacturing was at low levels. There is a lack of evidence showing that significant increases in carbon tax actually reduce emissions.

A considerable part of it is because, as we just heard, carbon tax does not change the behaviour of people who cannot afford to change their behaviour.

Professor FitzGerald's former colleagues in the ERSI told us here at a separate meeting that they disagreed with the model of carbon tax that the Government is introducing. They favoured a fee and dividend model. We have a problem here, however. I refer to part of the admiration Professor FitzGerald has given this committee for the work we have done on the carbon tax. One of our key priority recommendations was to advise the Government to conduct a fuel poverty survey of the country to establish the levels of fuel poverty, not only by looking at who gets fuel allowance but more broadly, and to come back to us then about the carbon tax. The Government never conducted that. I ask Professor FitzGerald to comment on that. Should the Government do so now?

It was not the only key recommendation we made on carbon tax. Recommendation No. 4 argued that an inquiry should be conducted into the revenue that could be realised through the introduction of a carbon tax on the profits of corporations directly linked to the production and sale of gas, oil and coal and other fossil fuels. As an economist, does Professor FitzGerald think there could be a model of tax that would disincentivise the fossil fuel corporations, the hedge funds and the investment banks which benefit from all the fossil fuel corporations and their behaviour, and could we use the taxation system to effect necessary change from them? I have one more question presently.