Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his response. In urban Ireland, there has been investment in alternatives and taxation has then been introduced. In rural Ireland, we are putting in taxation and then using some of it to reinvest in putting alternatives in place. The difficulty is that the form of taxation being introduced will disproportionately penalise the people who cannot use an alternative. I have referred to a typical commuting family in rural Ireland paying €6 extra per week in carbon tax while a corresponding urban family pays approximately 30 cent. I would fully support an increase if it was introduced the other way around such that the family in rural Ireland would pay an extra 30 cent and the family in urban Ireland would be charged an additional €6 per week because the State is already paying a large subvention to Irish Rail, Bus Éireann and Dublin Bus to provide them with transport alternatives, and investment has been made in cycling infrastructure, footpaths and so on. However, the tax is being introduced the wrong way around. The Minister knows in his heart and soul that 30 cent per week of an increase will not motivate any family to move out of their car and onto the public transport system. That is where it is wrong.

The Minister is correct on methane. The Citizens' Assembly suggested that we should introduce taxation on matters such as methane in agricultural production and I accept that the carbon tax does not deal with it. As the Minister knows well, the fundamental issue with methane is that we cannot calculate it on a domestic level. That is the fundamental flaw in the system that is in place. I raised this issue at the Council of Ministers because we will have a fundamental problem in Europe if we continue down this track. I accept that agriculture must step up to the mark. I do not dispute that. However, if we end up reducing dairy and beef agricultural production in Ireland, it will be replaced by agricultural production in South America. Beef production in the Amazon basin in Brazil results in approximately nine or ten times more carbon emissions per kilo than beef produced in the west of Ireland.

In industry, there is a condition entitled carbon leakage built into the emissions trading systems. That allows discretion for companies across Europe that are far more polluting than other companies to continue producing in Europe under a regulated system rather than moving to an unregulated one. The model of carbon leakage must be introduced in respect of agriculture production and methane.

That is an issue that needs to be addressed at a European level and one I have previously raised with colleagues.

In terms of my amendment, the difficulty is that if there is no tax liability in this instance the farmers with the lowest incomes will be badly hit by the carbon tax. The Department has some experts on fuel poverty who know this area inside out and upside down and the Minister is putting supports in place to address the matter both in terms of the fuel allowance and the deep retrofitting that is taking place across the midlands, which is welcome, but the budget did not address agricultural poverty. Environmental taxes must be fair and proportionate in order to be accepted. They need to be designed to drive change in Ireland. There is no point copying and pasting a model that has worked in Denmark and Germany and trying to shoehorn it into the Irish model. The reality is 37% of this population live in isolated rural communities. We are by far the most rurally dispersed country in Europe yet we are taking a carbon pricing model from some of the most densely populated countries in Europe that have very good public infrastructure and applying it here, which is where the problem lies. Again, I ask the Minister to consider my amendment.