Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am very clear that on budget day, the Government stated it was targeting those people in receipt of those three particular social protection payments as the three categories that were most identifiable. There are many people who will end up being net payers of carbon tax but who will not get anything back out of it. It generally falls to people in the workforce who are earning income. The Senator is right. We did not collect carbon tax to hand it back out straight away.

This is possibly the difference. One does not solve the climate change issues in one budget. It is a long-term plan, which is why we are setting out for a long period of years, what we are going to raise in carbon tax and why we are saying we are going to have detailed information in every budget and a plan to ring-fence that funding for the period over the years to come during which the carbon tax will be collected. Some people will be net beneficiaries as a result of that. If a person is in a house and receives a substantial grant to re-insulate one’s house, that person will be a net beneficiary in that year. That person, however, may not get that benefit again in the next ten years and the person will then be a net contributor. Like most things in life, one will contribute in particular years and in other years one may be a net beneficiary. All in all, there are measures to ensure that it is as fair as possible and when all is said and done, some people will be net contributors.