Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 13 January 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Carbon Budgets: Discussion (Resumed)

Mr. Ian Talbot:

I agree with what Dr. Healy has said. I did not mention it because it is a generic issue rather than a specific issue for us. I go back to what I said earlier, which is that we have a lot of choices to make and we have to bring people on board. We cannot give them one bit of the story and not the whole story. For example, there is a need to replace €5 billion worth of petrol and diesel motors with electric vehicles. Where will we get that money? It comes back to the politics of it. Look at how often we have tried to bring in a carbon tax in recent budgets and the temptation has always been to find a reason not to put it through or to reduce the amount it should be to get it over the line. The current rate of the carbon tax is trivial in terms of the amount we need to get done. Communication is vital but we also need some societal decisions about how the full package comes together.

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