Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I support the amendment. We have often been told since the carbon tax was introduced that it is being ring-fenced to do retrofitting of homes and everything else, yet people are waiting 24 months and have to have €50,000 to spend upfront to get approved and they might get €25,000 back. Live, horse, and you will get grass. Why would the Government transpose every other part of the directive and not put this in to copperfasten the legislation? It is because it is not being fair or honest. It is playing games with people, telling them the money will be ring-fenced for retrofitting and other green initiatives, but it is not. We are being punished and our budgets are being hammered because of the Green Party's active travel and everything else. This money is not being ring-fenced and the Government will not ring-fence it. If it was going to do so, it would be honest, put it into the legislation and accept this amendment. The Government is playing a deceptive game with us and with the public. I do not know what its reasoning is. We would all support it if it was guaranteed to go to helping people to heat their homes and to be more energy efficient. It is not.

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