Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Yes. Part of it is standing up for taxation. The spending rule is a net rule. We absolutely want to increase current spending further, but it should be funded through taxation.

My colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Smyth, has a €100 million budget for the circular economy, which is critical to where our country goes next. He has a quarter of a billion to deliver the national broadband programme which has been delayed by Covid. It will be delivered.

I come back to the critical question of whether to tax. We have to raise tax. We cannot do everything from borrowing. We can do the capital from borrowing, but we have to do the current by raising tax. I believe the carbon tax has been the right thing to do not just on the climate side, where it is critical, among a whole range of different tools, but also because it is progressive. For the second year in a row we have produced a budget which shows that those in the lowest deciles and quartiles, particularly the last four, benefit most. That is coming from carbon tax revenue recycled to the people. Some €9.5 billion will be raised through the carbon tax in the next nine years, with €3 billion going to social protection and €5 billion going to the retrofitting. Most of that will also go to social protection because it will be targeted at those on lower incomes and another 1.5 will go to social protection because it will go to many small farmers. Our carbon tax revenue is going straight back to the people; it is not going into the wider budget. It does not help the overall economics, but it helps social progress. It is actually a solution to the energy price crisis that is happening currently because international fossil fuel prices are increasing. The only way we can protect ourselves from that in the long term is to reduce our dependence on those fuels and improve the efficiency of our homes. It will bring health and other benefits with it. That is what is our carbon tax does.

Where is the alternative? Where does that €9 billion come from to give to our poorest people and allow us to meet our emissions targets? Where is the money going to come from for the retrofitting, which is around €5 billion, if it does not come from that? The carbon tax is progressive, as is the zoned land tax. A significant change was introduced with that yesterday. I heard some commentators saying the zoned land tax is only 3% compared with the 7% vacant sites levy, not understanding the scale of the measure that is being introduced. Is it 8,000 or 10,000 ha of land?

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