Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Climate action is vital and we all have our part to play. Considerable efforts must be made. However, everybody must be supported to help make those changes and the regressive carbon tax falls short in that regard. I thank the Rural Independent Group for giving us the time to discuss this issue.

Is the carbon tax designed to take into account energy poverty? The answer is a simple "No". Yet the people who suffer from energy poverty are the very ones who are paying disproportionate amounts of their incomes on carbon tax when compared with those who actually emit the most carbon. The carbon footprint of the top 10% is eight times greater than that of the bottom 10% but there is no sense of proportion in the carbon tax. That is one of the reasons I said during Sinn Féin's motion on rising fuel costs and the prohibition on the sale of turf yesterday, and I do so again, that this Government is undermining the climate action message with a fixation on punitive measures. Fianna Fáil backbenchers claim they are waiting for the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, to come up with new proposals. That is their way of not supporting Sinn Féin's Bill. They are using that claim as an excuse and as political cover to kick it into the future.

There is also the manner in which the measures are presented. The amendments tabled by the Minister for Finance are prime examples. One point made by the Minister is that a significant portion of carbon tax revenue is allocated for expenditure on targeted welfare measures and energy efficiency measures which not only support the most vulnerable households in society but also, in the long term, provide support against the fuel price impacts by reducing our reliance on fossil fuels. This is misleading. It does not represent climate action but climate mitigation. This is how the Government's focus on penalising households rather than supporting them to make the change will result in the money being spent on fossil fuels. What about our carers who take so much pressure off the health service but many of whom cannot get the fuel allowance? What does that say about not leaving behind anyone in energy poverty? For the Minister to say this is part of the progressive decarbonisation of Irish society is disingenuous at best.

Sinn Féin would establish an expert group on energy poverty to identify those living in energy poverty, whether on the fuel allowance or not, and develop policies to support them in a just transition and lift people out of fuel poverty. In line with this, we have proposed an increase of €125 million for retrofitting in 2022, which would be funded via other tax increases and not carbon tax increases. A targeted scheme should have been introduced. That amount is €44 million more than the Government has committed. The punitive approach by the Government to climate action undermines climate action measures.

See this speech in context