Brendan Ryan (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The amendment seeks a report on the carbon tax, but I will approach it from a different perspective. My party supports carbon tax changes generally. In fact, we might have gone a little higher. The matter I wish to raise, and this appears to be the appropriate time to raise it, relates to how carbon tax is being applied, particularly by utility companies. My question is whether it is being applied correctly and, if so, how that can be the case. To give an example, I have some figures from a gas bill from a utility gas provider. The total gas charge is €75.03. The standing charge is €14.18. Carbon tax is €5.17 based on an application figure of 0.00370 kWh. That brings the total to €94.38. This customer gets a discount of €3.75 because of a direct debit. The total is then €90.63. VAT is applied on the total figure. We are applying VAT on a tax. How can that be? Is this the way it should be applied? Perhaps it is an error on the part of this utility company but, if not, it is applied across the board by other utility companies. I probably should have seen it in my utility bills, but I did not. It was brought to my attention by a constituent. This matter is becoming more important as the carbon tax increases over time. It is grossly unacceptable that there should be a tax on a tax. I will be interested in the Minister's response on this.

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