Professor John Sweeney:

I can tackle fossil fuel subsidies. I thank Deputy Bríd Smith. The CSO estimates fossil fuel subsidies largely on the basis of revenue forgone. It uses a benchmark as a standard for what the average person pays in excise tax on petrol for driving a private car. On that basis, the CSO estimates that, for example, the revenue forgone on jet kerosene is €634 million per year and the revenue forgone on auto diesel, because diesel is taxed at a slightly lower rate than petrol, is €400 million per year. There is also a rate, which is very much lower, for green diesel for agriculture, forestry and fishing. This is effectively a subsidy and there is also a VAT refund on auto diesel, which amounts to €281 million a year. Those are the issues as regards revenue forgone.

I stress that there is a strong case for some subsidies, such as the heating allowance for winter that is currently allowed. That is a very legitimate efficient subsidy, and I would hate to see it being reduced as well.

There is also an issue in terms of things that we do not tax. I have been very surprised that I cannot find any other EU country that does not tax nitrogen fertilisers. Ireland is the only country in Europe that does not tax nitrogen fertilisers. That would have a significant effect on making more efficient use of fertilisers. The latter are a strong driver of greenhouse emissions in Ireland and of what is going wrong with our lakes and rivers. Those are the kind of areas in respect of which there is scope.

If you had an extra €2.4 billion a year, I am sure you could think of many ways to spend it in order to ease the transition to a post-carbon society. That would be a good start.