Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Rural Independent Group is behind everything that can be done to reduce emissions but it will not accept a carbon tax that is being foisted on the Irish people. Irish people will pay the highest rate of carbon tax anywhere in the world at €41 per tonne following budget 2022, with a statutory target of a staggering €100 per tonne by 2030. Like everyone else, we want the planet to be sustainable. However, it is not an accident that the haulage, farming and taxi industries are going to the streets on the issue of carbon tax, because this is crippling their business. Governments in other countries have capped the massive increases in the price of fuel due to inflation. Depriving people of their livelihoods is not the answer. The Government's answer was to close the peat factories and now we are importing peat. There are other cases of the Government closing down different situations and importing stuff into the country. The Green Party is a city-based party with no Deputy from outside a city. The Minister does not understand how the food gets to the shelves. He does not understand that what he is doing is costing every taxpayer in Ireland extra money to feed their children. He does not understand it even though every time he has stood up here he was asked to come down to Limerick. I would tell him what rural Ireland is like but he is a coward and will not come down.

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