Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We were all deeply impacted on by the determination and passion of the thousands of young people who took to the streets of Ireland on Friday to demand action on climate change. When it comes to the greatest threat facing our planet, young people are leading from the front. Their message is very clear, easily understood and makes sense. They are five words that will make a difference if listened to by those in power and the Government, namely, "system change, not climate change". They have asked for action to bring the urgency and radical policies the climate crisis deserves. Unfortunately, the Taoiseach has not heard them. They did not ask the Government to tinker at the edges, for half measures or to pass the buck; however, that is precisely what Government's proposed increase in carbon tax is. An increase in carbon tax passes the buck to hard pressed low and middle income families who are already fighting to make ends meet, while wealthy corporations are given a pass. The increase will hit families who are paying the equivalent of a second mortgage in childcare fees, young workers whose incomes are soaked up by extortionate rents, those living in rural Ireland who must use their cars to get around and pensioners who struggle to meet the cost of heating their homes. It is tinkering because we know from international evidence that carbon taxes do not work. They do not reduce carbon emissions or change people's behaviour. It is a half measure because the Government's proposals miss the crucial point. It has done very little to enable people to transition to a low carbon lifestyle and offset the tax. It has failed to invest properly to provide viable alternatives in the areas of transport, fuel and heating. Everyone accepts that we must do more and that we must do better, but we must also agree that climate response policies must be just and fair and, more importantly, that they must work. I call on the Government to consider a workable alternative, to fund climate action through progressive taxation and then invest in and deliver world-class public transport, to invest in renewable energy infrastructure and retrofitting housing stock. These are the measure that should be undertaken. The young people who protested last Friday want genuine investment in climate action. A carbon tax increase will not deliver on that demand and it is unforgivable to pretend otherwise. Will the Minster use the budget to map out a real climate action investment plan for which he will put up the cash and indicate that it will not include an increase in carbon tax?

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