David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

With respect, I accept that Mr. Carroll has a job to do. He is coming into this committee and giving us what is the Government and the Department line. Here is the reality. The money is still going into general Government expenditure. There is no hypothecating of any money and there is no ring-fencing. Mr. Carroll can give us many line items that might be in any particular budget and say that is because we increased the carbon tax but the headline figure of €3.35 billion was raised from households, businesses and working families, in terms of carbon taxes, since 2010. The Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment and the Department of Finance, whose representatives are here, are unable to tell us on what that money was spent. What we do know is that last year, carbon emissions did not go down. Is it correct that they increased slightly?