Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

There is an awkwardness to this whole session because that is exactly true. Professor John Fitzgerald said this is a political question. The allocation of resources is ultimately our job, and it is very difficult for Department officials in a sense. I wish we had the Minister for Finance here because this is politics at its core, but we have the Society of St. Vincent de Paul represented, and I was very reassured when I read Dr. Keilthy's submission on carbon taxes. It states:

It is SVP's view that increasing the fuel allowance alone will be insufficient to compensate for increases in the carbon tax and other mechanisms to protect low income households from carbon pricing should be examined and included. This may include recycling the revenues via the tax and the benefit system as proposed by the ESRI, which is found to be the most equitable option and administratively straight forward.

Am I reading from this that the Society of St. Vincent de Paul also sees that this tax and dividend model, as Dr. Keilthy said consistently throughout her presentation, helps address the core issue of poverty and income inequality?