Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

The best thing I can say for the Tánaiste and the Government tonight is that we have been spared the hypocrisy going on that this was another critical environmental measure. I am sure if the Greens were still in Government we would have been lectured tonight about how important it is to lash on extra taxes on oil and petrol for the environment. Of course it is not. Using increased taxes on carbon as an environmentally friendly measure is the crudest mechanism that could be used. It is like pretending that putting the price of cigarettes up by 25 cent was a health measure. This measure will hit ordinary working people, particularly those who need their cars to get to their place of employment.

The carbon reduction policy is crucial for our planet but in the European Union it has been reduced to farce. We now have a market set up in speculation in carbon credits, which operates in the same chaotic way as the financial markets we know all about. That is not how we save our environment. This is another crude measure to raise more money to pay off the banks and speculators, which is why it must be opposed.

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