Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

If we are to impose a carbon tax, the parts of the economy affected by it need certainty and a timescale towards which they can plan. If we are to impose a carbon tax on coal and peat let us have a timescale to do so. I stand over exempting agricultural diesel for very good reasons, which my colleagues have outlined.

Perhaps the Tánaiste will listen to me make my next point, rather than dismiss me because I am not in the ideological niche in which the Green Party seems to live. Last year, consumers and business paid an extra €220 million on their electricity bill because of the cost of carbon imposed and required by regulation on electricity bills in Ireland for businesses and households. People wonder why electricity is so expensive in Ireland. We have a carbon tax on electricity and we have had it for two years. We have stated this for 18 months and we agree with it. However, we want the Government to take it back and recycle it into the economy in some of the areas in which the SEI and the Minister, Deputy Ryan, are spending money and we support spending money on retrofit programmes, the warmer home scheme, the greener home scheme and the home energy efficiency scheme. However, we would like to see them refined to make it easier for home owners to pay over a period of time rather than having to borrow large capital sums to meet the portion of the cost to refit their homes that they have to access themselves from private funding.

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