Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The carbon tax is all stick. It is turning people against the environmental agenda, environmentalism and the effort to address climate change. It has no appreciation of the challenges in people's lives. Approximately 400,000 people in this State live in fuel and energy poverty. There are commitments in the budget and the Finance Bill concerning mitigation measures. They are only partial mitigation, however, and do not go anywhere near addressing the impact of the carbon tax in its totality, not this year and certainly not for the years to come.

The promised retrofitting schemes, the commitment to which I welcome, will not address the shortcomings or offset the impact of the carbon tax this year or into the future. There are waiting lists in the region of two and a half years. It should not be forgotten that some of these programmes are specifically targeted towards our most vulnerable, such as people living in poverty or with additional healthcare needs. The services and supports that are supposed to be in place - I accept Covid has had an impact - are not there for them or are not being delivered on time. Essentially, this is an additional tax with nothing to offset it in any real or meaningful way. The retrofitting schemes have to be bolstered. There needs to be a significant commitment in terms of the recruitment of people. There are workers ready and willing to do that retrofitting work. That needs to happen as quickly as possible.

On 1 December, the protections people had against utility disconnections were stopped. Last year, more than 5,000 people had their electricity disconnected and in excess of 2,400 people had their gas supply disconnected. There is no commitment or protection from the Government for those people today. However, we will introduce a carbon tax, essentially an additional levy for people who cannot afford to pay at this point in time. The public service obligation has been increased by 130%. Again, this is an additional burden on people whom the Minister intends to levy with a carbon tax as well. It simply makes no sense to people and they cannot afford it.

For those living in fuel and energy poverty, there was an emergency credit increase from €10 to €100. However, there was a levy on that. Instead of paying back the €100 recipients were grateful to get, they were forced to pay up to €170. People are penalised for living in poverty. That is the truth. That is what we get off Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and now the Green Party in government. The carbon tax is an insult to injury for those people, a point which the Government just does not realise.

On the just transition fund, those living at the coalface are the workers in Bord na Móna in the midlands and the energy sector. They have been moved out of that employment. They are living with promises from the Government about alternative pathways which have not materialised, again adding insult to injury.

The previous Government committed to a strategy to combat energy poverty but that has not materialised.

It committed to an independently chaired energy poverty advisory group but this has not materialised. We are told by the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, that it will be reviewed next year. It is simply not good enough. It does not connect with the day-to-day experience of people and it is completely unacceptable from the Government.

With regard to the points made by previous speakers, it is one thing where there are alternatives for people but significant sectors of the population, particularly in rural areas, do not have alternatives available to them. This carbon tax is all stick. It adds insult to injury and in my firm opinion it does nothing to serve the environmental green agenda. In fact, it runs completely contrary to it. There is a firm commitment to introduce this for a number of years but there is no firm commitment on mitigation measures nor appreciation or understanding of the challenges people have, at a time when we are essentially forcing people back into their cars because Covid-19 means public transport is at 50% or 25%, depending on the level of Covid restrictions.

Along with the previous speaker, I support entirely the amendments tabled by Sinn Féin and others. I firmly believe the Government needs to realise the practical implications of the carbon tax as it is presented for ordinary people living their day-to-day lives when there are no alternatives for them. The Government has no intention or interest in providing those alternatives. This raises a serious question about what the carbon tax is about.

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