Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will be speaking in support of amendments Nos. 72, 76 and 77. It is very clear that we are in a climate emergency and we need to act now. We need strong decisive action and leadership by the Government to deal with this climate emergency but we need progressive policies if we want to deal with this it.

I am deeply disappointed at the regressive nature of the carbon tax. I spoke at length about it on Committee Stage but I want to again highlight my anger at the regressive nature of it. Simply put, this is a regressive tax and the ESRI has been very clear that it will hit low income households most as well as single parent households. That is wrong, and I do not know how the Minister can stand over that. On Committee Stage, I found it particularly ironic that we debated this just before we discussed excise exemptions for NATO. We know that war is a massive pollutant and extremely bad for the environment but we are not discussing that; we are discussing the carbon tax. I made the point on Committee Stage that if the Minister is to push this we will see increases in carbon tax until 2030. His argument against my argument was that in this year's budget we are seeing increases that will make it okay in terms of social welfare and so on but I said that if we have to commit to increases in carbon tax we should also have equivalent increases in social welfare every year to offset the negative, regressive nature of this tax. I stand by that assertion and I believe that is what is needed if the Minister and his colleagues in government continue to pursue this regressive tax.

I want to add my voice to those of numerous speakers regarding the major impact this regressive tax will have on rural Ireland. We, and the Government, need to realise what many other speakers stated. People want to use public transport. They know it is good for the environment. It can be a lot less stressful way of going from one place to another than having to drive oneself but the reality is that public transport is not available in rural Ireland and when it is available it is at a massive cost compared even to city buses. I live in a city. There is a bus stop beside my house in Mervue. I am very lucky to have it but the reality is that the people living in Carraroe, in Connemara, have a totally different reality when it comes to public transport. If they want to use public transport to go to work, they may forget about it. They will not get there on time. If they ever get there it will probably cost them half a day's wages.

We will push amendment No. 72 to a vote. This is a regressive tax. We need to deal with the climate crisis but using a regressive tax, mar dhea, to support the environment is not the right approach to take. We need progressive policies to deal with this crisis.

See this speech in context