Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Senator Gavan is yet again pointing out the failings. I cannot resist pulling him up on a few small things. I do not know who is doing the maths for his party but he claimed that there will be a 39% increase in carbon tax. The increase will be around 1.5 cent to 2 cent a litre. He is scaremongering and he needs to stop. I will take on any debate if it is based on actual facts and figures, not claims about a 39% increase in carbon tax. Let us be realistic and look at proper solutions.

Sinn Féin is all about climate change now. It never was before but it is great that it is now. We are trying our best to find solutions. This is a very small tax and every single penny of it is going back into just transition, including the retrofitting of social housing stock. Has Senator Gavan got a problem with that? Last week €50 million was announced for rural accessible transport, for the first time in the history of the State. That is €50 million for rural children to be able to walk and cycle safely. Has Sinn Féin got a problem with that? The Government is working on putting more money into rural transport because, as was pointed out by the previous speaker, we need to look at rural transport. We cannot do everything overnight. It is easy to sit back there and throw muck. Let us have some solutions from Sinn Féin because we are all about solutions. I will happily work with Sinn Féin Members if they have solutions but we need to change. The Senator talks about climate change but he should ask his colleague, Senator Boylan, about it because she knows all about it. Maybe he is not fully aware of this but we have to do things differently. This carbon tax has to happen. It is very small and he is scaremongering people by saying it is a 39% increase when it is 1.5 cent to 2 cent a litre. Let us be very clear on that and let us not talk about 39%.