Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I move:

(1)THAT for the purposes of the tax charged by virtue of section 95 of the Finance Act 1999 (No. 2 of 1999), that Act be amended, with effect as on and from 14 October 2020—(a) in section 96(1B), by substituting “A is the amount to be charged per tonne of CO2 emitted, being €33.50 in the case of petrol, aviation gasoline, and heavy oil used as a propellant or for air navigation or for private pleasure navigation, and €26 in the case of each other description of mineral oil in Schedule 2A” for “A is the amount, €26, to be charged per tonne of CO2 emitted”,

(b) by substituting the following for Schedule 2 to that Act:

“SCHEDULE 2

Rates of Mineral oil tax

(With effect as on and from 14 October 2020)

Description of Mineral Oil	Rate of Tax
Light Oil:
Petrol .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... Aviation gasoline .... .... .... .... .... .... .... ....	€619.36 per 1,000 litres €619.36 per 1,000 litres
Heavy Oil:
Used as a propellant .... .... .... .... .... .... .... Used for air navigation .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... Used for private pleasure navigation .... .... Kerosene used other than as a propellant .... .... Fuel oil .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... Other heavy oil .... .... .... .... .... .... .... ....	€515.38 per 1,000 litres €515.38 per 1,000 litres €515.38 per 1,000 litres €65.74 per 1,000 litres €95.05 per 1,000 litres €117.78 per 1,000 litres
Liquefied Petroleum Gas:
Used as a propellant .... .... .... .... .... .... Other liquefied petroleum gas .... .... .... ....	€106.07 per 1,000 litres €42.48 per 1,000 litres
Vehicle gas: .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... ....	€9.36 per megawatt hour

and(c)by substituting the following for Schedule 2A to that Act:

“SCHEDULE 2A

Carbon Charge

(With effect as on and from 14 October 2020)

Description of Mineral Oil	Rate
Light Oil:
Petrol .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... Aviation gasoline .... .... .... .... .... .... .... ....	€77.52 per 1,000 litres €77.52 per 1,000 litres
Heavy Oil:
Used as a propellant .... .... .... .... .... .... .... Used for air navigation .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... Used for private pleasure navigation .... .... Kerosene used other than as a propellant .... .... Fuel oil .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... Other heavy oil .... .... .... .... .... .... .... ....	€89.66 per 1,000 litres €89.66 per 1,000 litres €89.66 per 1,000 litres €65.74 per 1,000 litres €80.27 per 1,000 litres €70.42 per 1,000 litres
Liquefied Petroleum Gas:
Used as a propellant .... .... .... .... .... .... Other liquefied petroleum gas .... .... .... ....	€42.48 per 1,000 litres €42.48 per 1,000 litres
Vehicle gas: .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... ....	€5.22 per megawatt hour

(2)IT is hereby declared that it is expedient in the public interest that this Resolution shall have statutory effect under the provisions of the Provisional Collection of Taxes Act 1927 (No. 7 of 1927).

Financial Resolution No. 2 provides for an increase in the carbon charge component of mineral oil tax on petrol and auto diesel with effect from midnight tonight. The increase amounts to €7.50 per tonne of CO₂emissions. Assuming the full increase is passed through to the final retail price, this will result in a VAT-inclusive increase of 2.1 cent on the price of a litre of petrol and 2.4 cent on the price of a litre of auto diesel.

The carbon tax was implemented on a phased basis from 2009. The current rate is €26 per tonne of CO₂emission and is applied to fossil fuels. This increase will bring the rate to €33.50 per tonne. There is a commitment in the programme for Government to increase the carbon tax to €100 per tonne by 2030. This is to be achieved by a series of annual increments of €7.50 from 2021, with a final increase of €6.50 in 2030. In terms of revenue raising, the increase in the carbon tax is estimated to contribute €108 million in 2021 and €147 million in a full year.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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There is a limited amount of time and ten speakers have indicated, so I ask Deputies to be brief.

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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In that spirit, I will keep my contribution to approximately two minutes in order to allow other Members in. I oppose the resolution on the basis that it includes an increase in the carbon tax. I wish to see this State and, indeed, this island become greener and cleaner, but I do not wish for that to be done at the expense of hard-working families, those who are in fuel poverty or those at risk of fuel poverty. The problem I have with the resolution and, indeed, the proposal of the Government in respect of the increase, is that if the increase in the carbon tax is locked in, it will be locked in for each year for several years, but what have not been locked in are the mitigating measures referred to by the Green Party in the course of the general election campaign.

I am especially concerned for those who live in rural Ireland. They do not have access to public transport and, as such, depend on the car. I am concerned about older persons who need to heat their homes, but will do so to a lesser extent if the Government keeps increasing the carbon tax. I am concerned that, once again, nowhere near enough funding is provided in the budget, despite some advances, for public transport, retrofitting and all the alternative measures which need to be put in place. I am afraid this carbon tax increase will hit many hard-working families hard. It will be a regressive measure. The Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, has repeatedly stated it is regressive. Nothing in the budget that I can see makes this a progressive measure. It will hit the lowest income families hardest and that is something neither I nor my party can support. For that reason, we will be opposing this financial resolution.

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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I urge the Minister to think about the average working family in rural counties such as County Donegal. Such a family typically has a car that is six, seven or eight years old. Those living in Donegal who wish to travel to a job or a place of study cannot do so by public transport. As such, they must drive a car and fill it with diesel or petrol. The average family in such areas cannot afford an electric car. God forbid. It is just out of reach. Even if they could afford such a car, it would not be practical because of the infrastructure in Donegal. The Government is penalising people who do not have an alternative.

Many people whose home is heated by oil, coal or turf do not have the money to retrofit their home, such as by installing solar panels. In this case, the Government is again penalising people who do not have an alternative. The objective which the Government wishes to achieve is not affordable, so it is penalising people who cannot afford it. The people who will benefit from the increase are the wealthier in society.

This is an ill-thought out and lazy policy. The Government could go after the heavy polluters in society but it is not doing so in an effective way. Any representative of rural Ireland worth their salt who looks at the full spectrum of options available to people in rural Ireland must oppose this proposition. It is a no-brainer for a representative of rural Ireland to oppose this financial resolution.

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I am opposed to this carbon tax structure because it fails to differentiate between those who can avoid paying this tax and those who do not have any choice but to pay it. Carbon taxes must be about driving change to a more sustainable country which is far less dependent on imported fossil fuels. It is not supposed to be about increasing Government income. It is about getting people out of cars and onto buses and trains.

I strongly believe that those living in rural areas, 37% of our population, do not have alternatives available to them, particularly in relation to public transport, and thus cannot avoid paying this tax. In addition, this tax is also regressive in that those living in rural communities will pay far more in carbon tax than those living in urban areas and yet the people living in our cities will have jobs locally and alternative transport solutions available to them. By the time 2030 comes along and we have a carbon tax of €100 per tonne, half the households in Dublin will be paying less than €9.11 per week in transport costs when the Dublin Bus subsidy is taken into account while rural commuters will be paying €39.50 a week - up to four times more being paid by people who do not have an alternative available to them than by those with a bus passing their door every few minutes.

When one looks at the heat aspect of this, based on current rates a typical rural household will pay €1 more per week in 2030 than those living in Dublin. In practical terms, the difference will be greater because the Government will subsidise carbon removal from the gas network through biomethane whereas families in rural areas will have to borrow substantially to move away from oil.

A congestion charge designed around motor tax would be a far more effective tool in moving those who can from their cars onto public transport. The alternative, which I put forward, would be to use the national car test and revise that regime to provide for an actual emissions profile of individual vehicles. That would treat rural areas - people driving long distances - far more fairly because they will have a much lower emissions profile than vehicles on congested streets. It would act as an effective congestion charge in this country and would encourage the retrofitting of vehicles and the use of alternative fuels.

We need to look at taxation models in this country that suit an Irish situation, rather than copying and pasting a model coming from continental Europe that will not drive the type of change we need to see here.

This penalises 37% of our population who live in rural areas and do not have alternative modes of transport. They are not getting their broadband delivered more quickly on foot of today's announcement and they are not bring provided with any new supports to work remotely. As a result, I will be opposing this provision.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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We have very little time to deal with what is a very important resolution before us. I will try to be as brief as I can.

The Labour Party fully participated in the all-party committee on climate change. We subscribed, after immense amounts of work by all parties, to its conclusions. Part of that, a comprehensive suite of measures, was an increase in carbon taxes. That is why we will not resile from that now. That is the acid test of seriousness about altering the build-up of carbon in the atmosphere and we must play our part in that. Part of that deal was that its cost would not be borne by people who could not afford it. That was the deal. We proposed not only a ring fence for the increases in carbon taxes but that the full carbon taxes would be rebated to those who needed them most, and that there would be a national retrofitting programme.

Those of us who strongly support the integrated strategy to achieve our greenhouse gas emission targets will find it difficult if the mitigation that was promised is not delivered upon and this particular set of proposals will undermine public support for that. There is a notion that it is enough to give a tokenistic increase in social welfare free fuel, but there are hundreds of thousands of low-paid workers who will not benefit from that and there are people who cannot avail of public transport, etc. We need to have the spirit of the all-party committee commitments met in full. We will support this tonight but we will need to return to this issue.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I am amazed at the disconnect that seems to exist between the Green Party - and to be honest, the position the Labour Party has just announced - and the reality that huge numbers of working people inhabit. There is nothing discrediting the climate change agenda more than these kinds of regressive taxes. The Greens are signing their own death warrant with this kind of stuff. I am amazed it does not get through to them how damaging this is to the climate action agenda when climate action means punishing working people who are struggling. A group I talk about all the time is the taxi drivers, who are on their knees. The Minister wants to increase their fuel costs, which is hardly a good way to get them on board for the climate agenda.

Musicians are a group that many people were talking about. Does the Minister know how most jobbing musicians get to jobs when they are available? They drive around the country. That is how they do it. Even more of them will have to do it after the Government cuts the Expressway routes. It is unbelievable that one of the first actions of the Green Party in government is to cut back on public transport - exactly what the party did on the previous occasion in the Fianna Fáil-led Government when it cut the Dublin Bus budget. Do they really think this is the way to endear people to the climate action agenda that we need urgently? Where is the just transition in this? It is only a token that never gets acted upon.

It is just a stupid mistake that does incredible damage to the climate action agenda when the Government should be putting forward policies where climate action will make a better life for the majority who are struggling, delivering the retrofitting programme that would reduce their heating bills and delivering the additional and subsidised public transport that will make moving around the place easier and cheaper. I hope at some stage they will cop on. We will be opposing this.

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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I, too, want to voice my opposition and that of my party to this regulation. Last week, I raised the growing issue of energy poverty. We all know that energy prices and bills have increased. We have seen an increase in the public service obligation levy. Electric Ireland customers saw an increase earlier this month and now we have a further increase of €7.50 in carbon tax. A fuel allowance today of €3.50 pales in comparison when we look at the mounting utility bills and, indeed, debt that many workers and families are facing. I am still waiting for the Department's report on the impact of increases in the carbon tax on low-income families. Of course, we all know what that impact is but the report still has not seen the light of day. That speaks for itself.

From midnight tonight, every driver in the State will be impacted by increases in diesel and petrol. This measure will be felt nowhere more greatly than in rural areas. The alternatives, as has been said, are not there. There are no public transport links and in many cases, it is not safe to walk or cycle. Aside from the suggestion by the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, that we can all maybe carpool in rural areas, there has been no regard whatsoever for the impact of this increase on rural towns and villages and there has been no alternative. Briefly, I will give an example of the public transport we are dealing with in rural areas. I was dealing with a college student. She is taking up a course in Tubbercurry, 40 minutes down the road. To get to college for 9 a.m., she would have to get the LocalLink bus from Frenchpark at 4.30 a.m., get to Charlestown, and wait there for two and a half hours for a connecting bus to Tubbercurry. That is the level of public transport we have in rural areas. If everyone in the morning could buy an electric car, the charging points and infrastructure are not there anyway.

Farmers will be extremely penalised by this measure. In relation to increased costs, we all know they are already struggling. This increase will lead to further hardship. It will lead to further energy poverty. That is why we are opposing it here this evening.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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Who else supports carbon taxes? Big oil: ExxonMobil in the US lobbies in favour of a carbon tax. It does that because it knows that carbon taxes are not effective, because they want to deflect from the kind of green new deal programmes that have been put forward by AOC and others in the US and because they want to discredit the environmental movement. They want to associate it, not with a green new deal and socialist policies that transform people's lives for the better while tackling climate change, but with making people's lives harder.

The agenda of big oil is to hang on to the trillions of dollars of wealth that they have on their accounts, which if humanity is to survive in a way that we recognise, has to become worthless or much of it must become worthless because they cannot take the oil out of the ground. They are trying to avoid those things and they support a carbon tax for that reason. Carbon tax will not work from the perspective of addressing climate change. I have given the example of Norway earlier and I could also give the example of British Columbia where carbon taxes and a recession combined brought a maximum of a 2% reduction in carbon emissions. It is estimated to do what we need to do with carbon taxes would take 110 years. We do not have 110 years, we have ten years. Market mechanisms will not deliver the change that we need. The only way we can deliver that change in the timeframe we have is through state intervention, public ownership and planning.

Finally, I make the obvious point of how regressive are these charges. In ten years time, we are talking about a carbon tax alone of €250 for a tank of heating oil. The demand for these carbon-based products is inelastic because people do not have alternatives. If someone is living somewhere where he or she does not have public transport and does not have the money to buy a new car, the person cannot avoid it and the tax simply sits on top of them. It avoids what needs to be done.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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I do not mean to interrupt but there are nine speakers and I want to make sure that everyone gets in. The time is down to a minute if Deputies can manage.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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The Leas-Cheann Comhairle understands rural life and her constituency. This is a three-card trick by the Greens, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. They tell us this money will be ring-fenced for projects to deal with a just transition. Just transition, my eye. Tell that to the woman trying to heat her cottage in the country, whether in Tipperary or any place, tell it to the farmer trying to cut his crop, the exporter or the lorrymen. I will be shocked if Deputy Verona Murphy supports this because she was lobbying for years with the Irish Road Haulage Association. Tell it to the contractors, Farm Contractors Ireland, to the people who are trying to get transport for their children to go to college, which we are all doing. It is shocking. To put this to the House tonight is blatant blackguarding and demonising of people in poverty, especially in rural Ireland who cannot go anywhere unless they get a taxi or drive. They have no cycle lanes and it is not safe on the roads. This will destroy taxis. What about the bus industry which is already crippled with the pandemic? How will they get back on the road again? How will lorry drivers fill up their diesel tanks? It has all gone up. It is just a cruel, mean, lean trick. I cannot believe that the Greens would pull the wool over the eyes of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Deputy.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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Obviously it is a Green budget but it is abominable.

Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein)
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Sinn Féin will oppose the carbon charge. With today's budget the Government launched yet another attack on rural Ireland. It is only weeks since many people in many parts of Tipperary, in my constituency, such as Cashel, Cahir, Roscrea and Nenagh were told they would soon be without their Express bus service. People in my constituency are limited by this and will be more reliant on their cars which the Government is trying to get rid of. The Government has said to these people that it simply does not care and that it will make it even more difficult and expensive to get around as motor fuel will increase in price courtesy of the carbon tax. The knock-on effect will be increased prices of food for families. The people living in rural Ireland will be the most effected by this. Covid has left most people with less money in their pockets and now the Government is dipping into those pockets to get a bit more. It is wrong and means that some families whose incomes have nose-dived will have to consider getting rid of a second car that they might need for work because it is too expensive to run.

The Government announced investments in DART which is probably needed, but there was no mention of public transport in rural Ireland. What does the Government expect people in my constituency to do? Are they to walk or cycle? This is another needless attack on rural Ireland. I hope the Government is pleased with itself after today.

Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour)
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This is a pill. As Deputy Howlin said earlier, this had to come in line with the other measures recommended by the Joint Committee on Climate Action. If there is any low-hanging fruit in cutting our carbon emissions it is retrofitting houses. This has sadly been left far behind in this budget. Our houses have the highest carbon emissions in Europe, at 60% above the European average. There is nothing in this budget which will turn that around quickly. That message must be hammered home to the Government. It is letting our climate action targets down with the lack of retrofitting in this budget.

Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent)
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This is an attack on every mother and father in rural Ireland who take their children to school and work in rural Ireland. It is an attack on every farmer who is using agricultural machinery. It is an attack on every fisherman out on the high seas using fuel. It is an attack on every person who has home heating oil. It is an attack on every lorry driver delivering goods. The Government has attacked some 37% of the population of this country today. It is an absolute attack on the ordinary people of rural Ireland. I am shocked to hear an Independent Deputy, once the head of the Irish Road Haulage Association, saying she would support this. What a shame. What kind of gravy are these politicians getting? Will the Social Democrats back this? Will the Labour Party back this tonight and turn its back again on the people of rural Ireland? Any Deputy in Cork South-West who backs this is hammering extra taxes and hurt on their own people and the people of the constituency. I will not support this in any shape or form.

Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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I do not subscribe to this notion of climate change. The climate changed going back through the pages of history. I will not go into that but it is a fact and it is well known. This is a savage attack on people in rural Ireland who own a car, maybe an old one, although it has been tested and is legally on the road. It is an attack on old people who have no other way of heating their homes except for oil, briquettes or coal. It is an attack on farmers who cannot stir or move around at all or do anything on their farms or land without a tractor. It is an attack on plant hire and agricultural contractors. It is an attack on hauliers and bus operators. It is trying to force people to buy electric cars. If electric cars were the real deal they are supposed to be and if they were an option, the people of Ireland and the people of rural Ireland are not fools, they would buy electric cars. However they are not a real option. There is one other thing: the battery. More carbon is produced to make and dispose of batteries and it is a danger to the people who drive them if there is an accident. These are the batteries that people objected to in wind farms, where they were stored out in the open and far away. I do not subscribe to this. I will vote-----

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Thank you.

Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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I made no deal like the Labour Party. I will make no deal with anyone, only the constituents that I represent in Kerry.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Thank you.

Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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They are the people that I will make my deal with.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Thank you. With Deputies' co-operation everyone will get in to speak but I would like to leave the Minister a little time. Otherwise I will have to bring down the guillotine for the vote at the end. I ask for Deputies' co-operation.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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We already have a carbon tax. Since 2010 we have collected about €3.5 billion on carbon tax. The money has not been ring-fenced for climate change measures. People find it difficult to understand. Some years ago, "Prime Time" interviewed the CEO of the Corrib gas project. He was asked when the company would pay corporation tax.

He replied that it might be paid in 20 or 25 years' time. That is one of the problems with this proposal, namely, the little people are being taxed all the time.

Another problem is the lack of alternatives in rural Ireland. The House has spent weeks debating school transport, yet we are forcing parents to drive their parents to school because they cannot get a seat on the bus. A large societal divide is emerging between the haves and the have nots. A broad-brush approach to carbon taxation runs the risk of negatively impacting a large swathe of society without a guarantee that there will be any positive behavioural change or positive impact on the environment. That is why we are opposing this tax - it has not been rural proofed. Had we adopted the legislation proposed by Deputy Martin Kenny last year, legislation would have to be rural proofed.

Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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How any rural Deputy could support this baffles me. Any working couple in rural Ireland who needs a car or to heat a house will be at least €300 worse off next year. That amount will increase year on year until the difference compared with someone living in a city reaches approximately €40 per week. There are no alternatives. Show me where there is an electric tractor that will bale, mow and put out slurry for farmers.

Be they in a city or the countryside, people must remember that all food travels by lorry and that, although some lorries are moving to gas, lorries usually burn diesel. In rural Ireland, many people drive cars that cost €7,000 or €8,000. An electric car probably costs €35,000 minimum.

We are now telling farmers that we will screw them more. The Government will probably claim that, in light of double taxation, a farmer will not pay this, but the reality is that farmers pay that price to contractors, who do 90% of their work.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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I thank the Deputy.

Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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Let the Government not twist and turn out of this. We are crucifying rural Ireland while also asking it to sequester this so-called carbon.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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There are a number of Deputies remaining. In fairness to the Minister, we need to allow him a few minutes, but we will run out of time. I ask that Deputies only make quick contributions. I cannot stop people, so I will ask for their co-operation.

Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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To deny climate change is to bury one's head in the sand. We have seen the hottest September on record and wildfires from the Amazon to Siberia. Climate change is real and it is here.

To say that this increase is a rural versus city issue is wrong. There are people in Cherry Orchard and other working class estates who are freezing cold tonight because the €100 that was forwarded to them during the lockdown by An Bord Gáis is being taken back from them for their card meters at a rate of 60%. They top up a card meter by €20 and get €8 back. People cannot sustain that sort of attack. With the increase next year, there will be a hefty increase in their energy bills. We are hitting the wrong source. We made this point throughout the committee's discussions. This and the previous Governments have never conducted research into fuel poverty and energy poverty in rural and urban Ireland. It needs to be done before this Government even contemplates hitting the wrong source instead of global corporations.

Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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People will have to go to the bog.

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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This carbon tax is brutal, punitive and a lazy cop-out. It is a failure by the Government to take the hard decisions and to tackle the root causes, the big polluters and the issues of poverty, including energy poverty. It is also a failure to provide alternatives. There is the equivalent of a two and a half-year wait for the warmer homes scheme. Were one to join the queue today, 8,000 people would already be on the list. With approximately 3,000 houses being processed per year, that represents a wait of two and a half years. Even if someone wanted to do his or her part, he or she would not be a position to do so thanks to the Government.

These increases look like they will be nailed on, but the so-called offsets like fuel allowance are not nailed on in any shape or form. It is a damning indictment of the Government.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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I thank the Deputy.

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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Transport workers in particular, including taxi drivers and private bus operators, will feel the pain of this. It is disproportionate and unfair.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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With the House's permission, I will give the Minister two minutes to respond. I was going to give him four. There are no rules. There are three Deputies remaining and only three minutes left. I ask for just a quick comment each. It is impossible to get all of them in, so I ask for their co-operation.

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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Tonight will be remembered as one of the most vicious attacks on rural Ireland that has ever been seen. It is a fact that this will affect everything. When living in rural Ireland, everything has to be transported on wheels. Only two weeks ago, the House debated the forestry industry. That timber is being drawn on our roads on diesel vehicles. The food that goes to our shops and supermarkets is delivered by diesel lorries. That is the way it is. Those vehicles cannot be replaced by battery vehicles in the timeframe that the Government has outlined. This will mean that the cost of living will increase significantly.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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I call the final two Deputies for a brief comment each.

Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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This is straightforward - carbon tax is an attack on rural Ireland and poor people. As has been stated, it is utterly lazy. People have no alternatives and the Government has offered none. This is a failure. Unless someone has €100,000 to pay for a high-end car, he or she will not see the benefit. That is just the way it is.

Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent)
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Green policies and agendas will cost the country dearly. That is particularly evident in the midlands where many industries have ground to a halt and there have been significant job losses. Here we are again seeing an unfair carbon tax being imposed on people. As the Independent Farmers of Ireland stated today, this is a pay cut for farmers and contractors. It is regressive for rural Ireland, which is being punished for the sake of an aspirational and impractical agenda.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I thank the Deputies who contributed. I agree with Deputy Howlin, in that supporting the implementation of the carbon tax is the acid test of our seriousness as a country in tackling climate change. Over the course of the next ten years, the carbon tax's application will help us to achieve 15% of our CO₂emission cuts compared with a situation where we did not apply it.

Deputies have made valid points regarding the importance of seeing that the carbon tax is implemented in a progressive way where its revenue is used to fund mitigation measures. I will take the opportunity to discuss the measures that will be funded as a result of the increase that has been decided upon. An additional €100 million will be invested in residential and community efficiency, starting with social housing. We will provide €100 million to enable the retrofitting of social housing.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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It will finance a range of important and targeted social protection interventions,-----

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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-----some of which are particularly relevant to my Department in the context of increases in the qualified child payment, those being, €2 per week for children under 12 years of age and €5 per week for children over 12 years of age.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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They cannot get a bus.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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It will lead to a €5 increase in the living alone allowance and a €3.50 per week increase in the fuel allowance. Those are the social welfare measures that will be funded as a result of this measure.

A number of Deputies raised the issue of rural Ireland. It is important to note that €20 million of the revenue will be used to pilot environmental programmes in agriculture, which is a recognition of the precarious nature of the incomes of many farmers and the importance of supporting farmers in making this change.

Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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The Government is looking after the farmers all right.

Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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Is there fresh water with that?

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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The Government is removing the bus service in Tipperary.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Is the Leas-Cheann Comhairle indicating that I must conclude?

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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I am afraid so.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The overall impact of this measure has to be seen in the context of a range of programme for Government commitments, some of which are being financed today, for example, the increased investment in LocalLink so that we can provide rural public transport, which has not been adequately provided for by previous Governments, and an increase in the public service obligation payment so that we can deliver BusConnects and improved public transport, put money into retrofitting schemes and support farmers in making the change to allow them to farm in a less carbon-intensive manner.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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The time allowed for this part of the debate has expired.