Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We understand fuel poverty, but if more of the money being received can be earmarked, ring-fenced - one can use whatever word one likes - for initiatives that will reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, that will be the ultimate benefit and where we should be trying to get to. We are here to add to the debate. The public should be able to see transparency and accountability in respect of the €500 million in carbon tax that will be collected next year. The Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment probably has some documentation done, or perhaps each Department has it done, on the Estimates for the coming year. I am just saying this myself - I have not run it by the committee - but it would be a tremendous assistance and of benefit to the public, when the Estimates come before their respective committees next year, to be shown where the more than €500 million that will be collected in carbon tax next year will go on climate change initiatives. It would be a tremendous help to everybody. It would help the Government in its initiative. Some 170 young people were sitting in the Dáil Chamber last Friday. Their generation would receive the benefit. Just collecting the tax and putting it into the black hole where most of it is going is not helping to bring people around. We, the Committee of Public Accounts, want to contribute to that debate. Mr. Carroll understands where we are coming from.