Mr. Gerry Kenny:

The Senator mentioned the diesel rebate scheme. It has been in place since 2013. It was introduced when fuel prices were particularly high. I acknowledge that the haulage sector was probably the only sector with the means of getting our goods to the market, either domestically or internationally. The Minister made a concession for the scheme this year in the context of the increase in the carbon tax but he did so on a temporary basis. He said it was to run until 2020 and to be reviewed. It was in the back of his mind that any increase in fuel costs for the haulage sector would just be passed on to the end user. It was the Minister's intention when introducing the carbon tax that it would not add to people's costs. That is why he went to so much trouble to ensure the additional revenue raised would be used to address fuel poverty, just transition and other matters.

Reference was made to the bike-to-work scheme. In this regard, the problem with many taxation issues is the tax expenditure. Unless people are paying tax, they cannot benefit from the scheme.

We do not benefit from that. Tax expenditures generally are not the best way of addressing these issues, to be perfectly honest.