Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

First, I would like the Minister to comment on the intra-group transactions and the capital allowances, which are the two biggest categories of tax reliefs. To my mind, they are examples of aggressive tax avoidance by major multinationals. Tax relief in this category amounted to €16 billion in 2019, around €6 billion in capital allowances and, of course, there is the research and development tax relief.

I should also mention in respect of climate that the Minister is going to increase the carbon tax once again. The ESRI has stated that that is regressive for people on lower incomes when they have little control over their ability to reduce their energy use because of, for example, the quality of their housing. Is that not the case? Is the ESRI not correct? Is it not the case that it is going to increase fuel poverty, particularly given that, for example, in most local authorities next year the retrofit plans for social housing are for only 1% of the housing stock, so many people will have no control over the heating they need to keep their houses warm, and the Minister is going to punish them with further increases in the carbon tax?