Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Each person produces 13.3 tonnes of carbon. An increase of €6 per tonne in carbon tax means each person will pay approximately €80 extra. For an average family of three, the regressive impact of the carbon tax amounts to approximately €240. This is more of the unfair, regressive and dishonest approach to dealing with the climate emergency. How are people supposed to retrofit their home if they live in a council house? They cannot do so because they are not allowed to do so. As such, how are these people supposed to reduce their energy bills? They have to wait for the local authority to do the retrofit. In my area, the local authority is retrofitting approximately 2% of the housing stock each year. How is someone supposed to use more public transport when we have some of the lowest subsidies for public transport anywhere in Europe and, as Deputy Coppinger pointed out, which is true in my area also, people cannot get a bus in the morning because there are not enough buses in the fleet? Where is the additional money to add an extra few hundred buses to the fleet? Where is the money to reduce fares? Did the Taoiseach ever see pensioners who have free travel? They use public transport more because it is free. If the Government wants to get people out of their cars and on to public transport, it should make public transport free. We have had none of those measures. We have only had a punitive carbon tax that is regressive and hitting the poor.

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