Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Tánaiste. Ministers are being told that they will be audited with regard to carbon emission-reducing measures. What will that mean for our farming community and fishermen who are already in dire straits? I have discussed this with Irish Farmers' Association leadership over the last 24 hours and I am again coming back to the fact that the Cabinet is saying that our State will have to come up with €1 billion of additional taxes every year for the next ten years. What are the implications for our tourism industry, including, for example, our airline industry? This is outside of Covid. Will we have to reduce the number of people allowed to come into the country? We are continuously trying to attract people here. Will we say that planes will not be able to fly? Will we have to say to people that they will not be able to burn turf or timber in their fires? We always said the one thing that people had to do was to keep the home fires burning. Are the Tánaiste and the Cabinet, and present and future Governments, tying people's hands behind their backs and saying that they cannot do that? I am not denying that we have issues to deal with with regard to our climate but we have to protect the present and future public from being overburdened with tax. I appreciate the sincerity of people like Deputy Eamon Ryan but we cannot go blindly into this, signing a blank cheque and putting future generations of people at enormous expense for something that we cannot even discuss.

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