Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I ask myself in the sense that we all have responsibility. The Taoiseach said the time will come some day when he is willing to say what he wants to do on climate. I believe that day is today. We cannot put it off any longer. It is today because we, in the Committee on Climate Action, can see the scale of the challenge in front of us. Under European law, we have to publish the first draft of a new national climate and energy plan by Christmas to be agreed by the end of next year. We need to know what we are going to do on carbon taxation in drafting that plan. Does anyone disagree with that? How can we work out all the other measures if that measure is not in place? It is one we have control over.

I have a proposal for Deputies Micheál Martin, McDonald and Howlin, and to be honest, if Fine Gael wishes to abstain from this issue, it would speak volumes. Let the Taoiseach make that decision himself. My proposal is similar to what the Taoiseach just said, that we would introduce an increase in carbon tax where every single cent would go straight back to the people in the form of a dividend, whether through the social welfare system, the tax system, or a cheque in the post. In the climate committee last week, we asked the Secretary General of the Department of Finance to come back to us by 30 November with an outline of how that could work. My proposal and question is whether we can agree in that committee the following measure, that next year we should introduce an increase of €20 in the level of carbon tax, and that, in each subsequent year, there would be an increase of €5 up to 2030 which would set the level at €90 per tonne by that time. It gives predictability, follows best policy advice and, critically, the money goes back to the people on any increased revenue.

We would use the existing carbon tax mechanisms in the way the Government has already planned, so there would be no additional costs or bureaucracy and this proposal would be relatively easy to introduce. Critically, it would also be progressive as the analysis shows that it would deliver a more significant return for those on lower incomes than for those on higher incomes because the latter tend to consume more.

What we learned from the ESRI yesterday is that the tax on its own would be nowhere near enough. There are massive projects we need to carry out. I would love if we started by commissioning Bord na Móna to do a major project of converting Irish homes from oil and gas-fired central heating to heat pumps and installing solar panels, insulation and electric vehicle charging points, particularly in the west, south west and north west and in rural areas. We would save further through that approach.

We need to know what the Taoiseach is going to do on carbon. If the other party leaders cannot answer, I hope they will be able to do so by 30 November when the joint committee will meet to consider the Department of Finance's note on the ESRI study. That is a question we all have to answer today, not at some time in the future.

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