Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. We should acknowledge at the outset that roughly half of carbon tax is paid by businesses and the other half by individuals. It varies a good deal from one individual to another. It is not just a rural-urban matter. It depends on how big your house is and how you heat it, whether you drive and what type of car you drive. There are many things people can do to reduce their carbon tax liability, regardless of whether they live in urban or rural areas. I acknowledge that a greater burden is going to fall on rural households than on urban households because of the need to travel by car and the fact that houses in rural areas generally are larger than would be the case in urban areas.

When it comes to solar panels, it is important to bear in mind the changes that have been made recently. In the past few weeks, The Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, changed the planning rules to allow people in almost every part of the country to put solar panels on their roofs without planning permission. That is a big change. The Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, announced changes to the solar panel grants for businesses. Those changes will make it much easier for them to avail of those grants. I encourage businesses to apply for the grants. There are 20 different schemes available to businesses to give them advice on how to reduce their energy consumption and move to renewables. I would like to see more uptake of that. Because of the high cost of electricity, gas and oil at the moment, the return on investment from solar panels is pretty good. People can make their money back within a few years. That makes it a very good investment.

On rural transport, I agree with much of what the Deputy said. We need to improve public transport in rural areas. There are new services available throughout the country. We have a budget to do more and we have plans to do more. The Minister for Transport and the Minister of State, Deputy Hildegarde Naughton, will take the opportunity to expand on that in the House. We also need to invest in more electric vehicle charging points across the country. Electric vehicles have much greater range now, which makes them far more viable than in the past. However, we are not where we ought to be in regard to the charging infrastructure that is needed. We need to press ahead in that regard. We use carbon tax receipts to do that type of thing.

The Deputy mentioned a specific private operator who did not get a licence from the NTA. It would not be appropriate for me to get into that. I do not know the answer to the question for a start. Licences are not issued by the Government; they are issued by the NTA, which is an independent regulator. However I appreciate that the Deputy has raised the question here and I will ask my office to make some inquiries as to why that licence was refused. I am sure there is a reason but I honestly do not know what it was.

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