Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

The Deputy presumed to deliver my lines. Let me have a go at responding to him. First, as we have discussed, and I understand and acknowledge that this is how the rules of the House work, nobody is about to vote on anything other than an amendment to have a report on mineral oil tax. We need to be honest about the effect of this. No matter what way anybody votes, this is an amendment to request a report on mineral oil tax. It will not help anybody tomorrow in Cavan-Monaghan or elsewhere across the country.

Mineral oil tax comprises a non-carbon and a carbon component, commonly referred to as the carbon tax. Legislation passed by this House provides for multi-annual increases to the carbon component of the mineral oil tax. I assume the Deputies are requesting a report on legislated increases in the carbon tax, including a distributional impact analysis of same. As they will be aware, the programme for Government committed to continue with the planned carbon tax increases, aligning with recommendations from the Climate Change Advisory Council and scientific experts, and to use the resulting revenues raised to support climate action measures and ensure the most vulnerable benefit from those measures and are protected from unintended impacts of the tax increase. This includes funding for retrofitting but also agri-environmental schemes, alongside targeted social welfare and other initiatives to prevent fuel poverty and ensure a just transition. These measures are designed to be progressive.

To give effect to the programme for Government commitment to protect the vulnerable, a targeted package of social protection interventions has been developed. This was informed by ESRI research that was commissioned to address this specific issue. The allocation from within agreed expenditure allocations for 2026 is more than €1.1 billion, which is an additional €163 million on the previous budget. A total of €350 million of this is allocated to targeted social protection interventions.

The Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation issues an annual publication on budget day entitled The Use of Carbon Tax Funds. This contains further detail on these allocations and includes information on the programmes funded from carbon tax revenues. Analysis undertaken using SWITCH, the ESRI's tax and benefit model, to simulate the impact of the carbon tax increase and the compensatory welfare package, estimates that the net impact of the combined measures is progressive. Half of households are better off due to the measures part-funded by additional carbon tax funds, with households in the bottom four income deciles benefiting the most.

Furthermore, as part of budget 2026, my Department published the Beyond GDP - Quality of Life Assessment report. This publication complements economic and fiscal analyses with an assessment of qualify-of-life indicators. The report looks at a wider set of indicators that contribute to well-being, such as environmental, income and wealth distribution, and equality indicators and documents, to see how Ireland is performing in these areas. The taxation of fossil fuel products was also recently examined in the tax strategy group paper, Energy, Environmental and Vehicle Tax, published by the Department of Finance in July. All budget day publications and tax strategy group papers are publicly available. Therefore, I believe there are sufficient reports available in this area and there is no need for an additional report.

As my colleague, the Chief Whip, pointed out, there are lots of benefits in this budget for people and families right across the country. Deputies opposite seem to find that funny but I do not think it is funny at all; it is important.

See this speech in context