Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

Unfortunately it is because people such as Deputy Gogarty do not understand the carbon consequences of organic farming that they make fools of themselves in the House on a regular basis.

I want to make a number of points on this proposal. Last Friday, Fine Gael published its proposals on carbon tax for everybody to assess, examine and criticise if they wished to do so. We proposed a higher rate of carbon tax than is in the budget, based on €20 per tonne rather than €15 but we also proposed that certain sections of the economy would be exempt for good reason and agricultural diesel was one of those.

We also proposed to exempt coal and peat for a period of two years. Deputy Cuffe should stop tut-tutting. He has done the same but has not put a timeframe on it.

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