Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)

If this is a carbon tax then the excise duty placed on petrol last year was a carbon tax and I made that point at the time. The Minister is not doing anything different to change people's behaviour and that point was made. An amount of €0.08 was slapped onto petrol last year and this year €0.04 will be put on it. While this measure is labelled a carbon tax, with which everyone agrees on principle, it is a tax to raise money and we know that. The country is in deep trouble and Ministers are doing anything they can to cut spending and imposes taxes without calling them what they are.

The Minister spoke about encouraging people to get electric vehicles. He never thinks about people who live in remote communities in rural areas or people in commuting areas without a decent public transport system. The people who will be hit are those on middle incomes who will lose child benefit and public sector workers who travel from Navan to the HSE headquarters beside Heuston Station and there is no train service for them and they must use a car.

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