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

The joint committee has done a good job over the last year. One of the key recommendations on which all members agreed was the need to analyse how the introduction of any carbon tax could be progressive rather than regressive. That involved two requests which, unfortunately, were not met. The first was the carrying out of a fuel-poverty study by the Department of Finance, which did not take place at all, while the second, a consultation process on the dividend model, which would be progressive, and its alternative, which is what we have seen today, was not carried out properly. It was interesting to hear the various debates on the budget today when we had a chance by using that dividend model to meet our social welfare commitments as well as our climate commitments. We could have put the two together.

It is deeply unfortunate that chance was not taken. We can come back to it again in future years.

The Green Party supports both motions because it believes in putting a price on pollution but we need to do far more. That is only one small part of the jigsaw that we need to put in place.

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