Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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10. To ask the Minister for Finance the total amount by which he intends to increase the carbon tax, by category, in each year until 2030. [28015/25]

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Will the Minister outline the amount by which he intends to increase the carbon tax during the course of the Government's term, setting out clearly what that will mean for families and workers facing a cost-of-living crisis?

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Finance Act 2020 legislated for annual increases in the carbon tax rate of €7.50 until 2029, along with a final increment of €6.50, bringing the rate to €100 per tonne of carbon dioxide in 2030, with current rates based on charging €63.50 per tonne of CO2 emissions. Under the programme for Government, it has been agreed to continue with the planned carbon tax increases, which align with recommendations from the Climate Change Advisory Council, and to continue to use the additional revenues to fund social welfare measures, agri-environmental schemes and retrofitting. This approach encourages a shift away from fossil fuels and ensures those who are most vulnerable receive targeted support, making the transition to a sustainable future fair and equitable.

There are three separate legislative frameworks within tax law to apply the carbon taxation regime across liquid fuels, natural gas and solid fuels, namely, the carbon component of mineral oil tax, MOT, the natural gas carbon tax and the solid fuel carbon tax. The carbon components of MOT on petrol and auto-diesel are legislated to increase each October up to and including 2029. The MOT rates for other liable fuels such as heating kerosene and marked gas oil, along with the natural gas carbon tax and the solid fuel carbon tax rates, will increase annually in May up to and including 2030 to allow for the winter heating season.

The mineral oil tax rate increases up to the final year will annually add 1.7 cent to a litre of petrol, and approximately 2 cent to a litre of diesel, heating kerosene and marked gas oil or farm diesel. The natural gas carbon tax rate increases up to 2029 will add just under €15 each year to the average household natural gas bill, based on annual usage of 11,000 kWh. The annual solid fuel carbon tax increases up to 2029 will add 80 cent to a 40 kg bag of coal.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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The carbon tax is unique. There is nowhere else we can point to in the current budget where we can say with certainty, "This is what the Government plans to do". We cannot tell pensioners where their pension will be in five years' time but we can tell them by how much precisely Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and those champions of rural Ireland, the Healy-Raes et al., are going to increase the cost of heating their home. We cannot tell motorists how much money will be given to fund the roads network or precisely how much will go to improving transport connectivity, but we can tell them exactly how much money will be added to the cost of driving to work. The worst is that none of this actually works. The money is not ring-fenced, despite what the Government protests. This is a revenue-collecting measure that disproportionately affects working-class, poorer and rural households. Does the Minister accept and appreciate just how bizarre this situation is? Will he finally see sense and engage constructively in order that we can tackle environmental challenges without fleecing ordinary workers and families?

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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This is a revenue-collecting measure that pays for public services and improvements in those things that can make a difference to a greener future for Ireland.

Annual increases in carbon tax have been ring-fenced to ensure that this money is used to fund the development of better infrastructure across our country, help with the cost of fuel poverty and fund things we know our country needs to become greener and healthier. Budget by budget, I have made changes in social welfare payments to ensure that those on the lowest income levels are not affected the most by changes in carbon tax.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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I really would appreciate a bit of honesty from the Government. It is not true to say that the carbon tax is ring-fenced. The Comptroller and Auditor General confirmed that he could account for about 61% of it and be assured that it was going towards environmental measures. As with all Government decisions, taxes are collected and decisions are made as to how they are spent, so to say that we need the carbon tax to pay for environmental schemes probably sets out how committed the Government is to those environmental schemes in the first place. The Minister can talk about mitigating measures and alleviating measures that are in place but carbon tax will not do anything for the environment. It will just make the lives of my neighbours - families in rural communities who have no choice but to use their cars every day to drop their children to school or to go to work and who have no choice but to use the home heating system in their home - harder. I do not know why the collective that makes up the Government - Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and now the Rural Independent Group - simply cannot understand and appreciate that.

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I was careful in my answer. I said that the increases in carbon taxes since I introduced this measure in the Finance Act 2020 have been ring-fenced. Before I put in place the increases to which we are referring, there had been a base carbon tax, which was the foundation for all of this and the revenue from which goes to pay for public services. The Deputy stated that it said something about my motives that we are using these increases in carbon tax to pay for measures that can help with the greening of our economy and country. Likewise, his lack of commitment to these carbon tax changes raises questions about how he would pay for these measures. I understand they have an effect and that there are many who find it hard to pay these taxes. That is why we put in place the social measures to which I referred but if we want a greener future, we must find some way to pay for it.