Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 4 December 2019

Committee on Budgetary Oversight

Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council

Dr. Martina Lawless:

The final question was on climate change and the introduction of carbon tax to change behaviour and reduce Ireland's climate emissions exposure over time. This is a feature of our fiscal risks matrix on page 111. We have listed missing our climate targets in the long term and therefore becoming subject to EU fines as both a high-probability and a high-impact risk for future fiscal sustainability. It looks almost certain that we will miss the 2020 targets, which will mean fines of between €150 million and €400 million.