Seán Kyne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Senator Chambers has covered many of the points I wanted to mention. My party has supported increases in carbon tax since the previous Government and increasing it was in our manifesto, as it was for most parties in this Chamber.

As Senator Chambers pointed out, carbon tax is not about collecting money for the purpose of penalising anybody. It is about changing attitudes. Any money collected is used to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. For example, there is nothing as inefficient as burning coal, turf or briquettes in a fire where that heat is dissipating through windows, doors, roofs, etc. The Government has invested a considerable amount of money into energy-efficient schemes and continued to do so in the recent budget. By doing so we will see our housing stock converted and made more energy efficient. That is what this is about.

During my Second Stage speech, I touched on one area of concern as the trajectory increases. We are trying to change people's behaviour in driving cars. We are providing money for cycleways, BusConnects, bus lanes and greenways around Galway city, for example, to encourage cycling, which is the right thing to do. However, some of the most rural areas will not realistically get a bus service that will pass by their door every ten, 15 or 20 minutes. I hope it happens and I am proven wrong. Ring-fencing money for public transport, greenways, commuting routes, improved pedestrianisation and bus lanes is positive for our large towns and particularly our cities. However, I have a concern for some of our most rural areas.

We need to ensure that some of the additional finances collected through the carbon tax are invested to provide new bus routes in rural areas and improve the frequency of bus services. We need to look at the configuration of our Local Link services and link them up with Bus Éireann or private operators to ensure there is a connection between some of the most rural houses and the mainstream bus networks. Many parts of Ireland will not get trams, fast trains or anything like that. They will still rely on roads. They have two options, either to drive cars, and we encourage electric cars, or they can have a quality bus service. That is my concern over the coming years as the trajectory of carbon tax increases. We need to provide quality bus services and where there are bus services at present, we need to increase frequency to give people an alternative to the car.