Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I support the Sinn Féin amendment. This hike in carbon tax is a deeply regressive move. The Government has played with words and spun very significantly about the carbon tax for far too long. We need to state clearly that it is just the increases and not all of the carbon taxes that are ring-fenced. Therefore, a very significant amount of carbon tax that is raised goes into the general Exchequer; that is still the case.

This is a measure that punishes ordinary people when alternatives are not in place. The Government goes on to make the case that there are not alternatives to the carbon tax. Indeed, the Minister at his press conference today said that he spoke to Deputy Doherty in advance of the formation of this Government and asked how a Sinn Féin-led government would fund climate measures. Year after year we spell out how we would fund progressive climate measures and how we would design schemes. In contrast to the Government's budget, Sinn Féin without increasing carbon tax has proposed to do more on retrofitting, public transport and energy transformation than the Government has done.

See this speech in context