Dr. Theano Kakoulidou:

As part of the review, we looked at how different environment reliefs contribute, mainly in tax expenditures.

We saw some data from the CSO that around €2.4 billion annually is paid in subsidies for fossil fuel. The problem with this is the biggest part of that revenue is mainly from jet kerosene and it is part of the EU directive that they should be exempt from a tax bill. As far as we know, for the time being there is a discussion in the EU to re-evaluate this directive and start taxing this type of fuel. This could be a source of revenue, but only in the short term. If the environmental goals are fulfilled, all revenue from these tax expenditures will be reduced. The main point our report made is that to assign a new source of revenue for the motor tax yields that would be diminished for the year, the Government should see a broad-based statutory measure. It will be very difficult to raise significant extra sums of revenue without increasing one of the four main taxes: income tax rates; the universal social charge; pay related social insurance, PRSI; or value added tax, VAT. It will be very difficult to find another source of revenue that will give the same amount of revenue.