Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)

I would like to have the chance to do so now.

Carbon tax must be dedicated to dealing with the issues relating to fuel poverty, climate change and tackling the big polluters. Rregrettably, this carbon tax does none of those things.

Fuel poverty is a really important issue which must be tackled. All we got in the Budget Statement was that there will be some kind of vouched system some time in the future to protect the poor. I do not believe that nor do I believe an awful lot this Government says. We must have measures which are quantifiable and deal with the core issue of the cost of fuel for people living in low grade, substandard and poorly insulated housing, who are on very low incomes and who cannot afford the bald increases set out in the budget.

We need a retrofit scheme that is imaginative and is of a scale that matches the challenge. There are 1.2 million houses in this country that need retrofitting. We could employ 30,000 construction workers in an area in which they are skilled and using resources with which we are familiar, including internal or external insulation or whatever. That is not being done. We are getting more of the same.

We are getting a little top up essentially on the existing schemes which are operated through Sustainable Energy Ireland. Good luck to anybody who can avail of them. However, this is not the retrofit scheme we need. I believe I heard the Minister for Finance indicate that it will take until 2025 before all houses are done. He should get real. One of the few things we can do to tackle climate change which would be really effective would be to bring energy efficiency to the highest level possible. That means retrofitting buildings until we can retrofit no more and then hope further technology emerges quickly so we can retrofit more. It could have been done.

The road map was set out in research done by Joseph Curtin who showed exactly how it could be done. The Labour Party adopted that particular plan because it was so good, and I make no bones about it. It was a "pay as you save" scheme through one's utility bill. It could have unlocked private money in bank accounts. People are afraid to spend money but they would spend it if they were assisted in making their homes energy efficient.

What we got instead was a fig leaf for the Green Party when we are running out of time. This Minister will not produce the heads of a Bill on climate change as he sets out for Copenhagen.

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