Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is precisely because of the planetary boundary, as Senator Higgins described it, that the Government decided to go ahead with an increase in carbon taxation. The Government could have done the easy thing. My fellow Ministers in Cabinet and the Deputies who support this Government could have said the price of energy is going up at a time when many families and businesses are facing increasing pressure and now is not the time to go ahead with a carbon tax. That could have been an option for the Government to take. If we had taken that action, we would be in a situation where the price of carbon and the tax on carbon would not go up again for the foreseeable future. The Government decided not to take that course of action. We decided that, because of our recognition of the environmental and ecological chaos that could well already be approaching us, we would go ahead and stand by our commitment to raise the price of carbon, budget by budget.

I understand that Senator Higgins's recommendation is saying that, on top of that, we should have equalised taxation on diesel and petrol. The concerns she has about fairness and how we can maintain the case for putting up the price of carbon would at that point come into play. Is the Senator suggesting that on top of going ahead with an annual increase in carbon tax, we should also have equalised the tax on diesel and petrol?