Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House.

The increasing threat of climate crisis and our responsibility to shift towards a low-carbon economy present challenges and opportunities to our society and the broader economy. Despite the rhetoric, the current Government is falling short on taking effective climate action. At the outset of this year, we held the highest greenhouse gas emissions rate in the EU. Under the leadership of this Government, our emissions continue to rise. Where is the alternative for households?

Public housing needs to be retrofitted first and could provide quick wins. There is only an increase in retrofitting of public housing of €3 million. Sinn Féin plans, in contrast, deliver on the scale and ambition necessary to support those who need the most support in retrofitting their homes. We would increase the budget by €45 million, bringing the total investment to €132 million.

On the other retrofitting schemes, the Government would only increase spending by €24 million to a total of €380 million. We would have gone further and would have contributed €514 million, all the while prioritising those on the lowest incomes, ensuring affordability and access.

The current national retrofit plan disproportionately benefits those with the greater means, instead of those in greatest need. We believe it is time for change in terms of how we do this. We have outlined our proposals to address these issues and ensure a fair and equitable approach to home energy upgrades in our alternative budget and policy documents.

The carbon tax, as we have said on numerous occasions, is in our view regressive. We have shown how alternatives exist. Our plan demonstrates one can retrofit houses without increasing the carbon tax on ordinary people. We would not increase the carbon tax in 2024.

It is a myth that the only way to fund climate action is through a carbon tax. Measures can be funded through general taxation. A clear difference between our approaches is that we will fund climate through more progressive taxation on income by asking those who benefit most from the economy to contribute that little bit more. We propose a 3% solidarity tax on the portion of individual income above €140,000 - raising €386 million in 2024. We also propose removing tax credits on a tapered basis on individual incomes of between €100,000 and €140,000 - raising €325 million in 2024.

The climate benefits of a progressive taxation system are acknowledged widely, not least by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, in its the Working Group III special report that stated, "Higher income inequality is associated with higher carbon emissions, ... reducing inequality in high-income countries helps to reduce emissions".

Despite our opposition to the carbon tax, we are not opposed to behavioural taxes. We are in favour of ones where feasible alternatives exist, for example, a tax on private jets, which are a total luxury and not necessary. There are obviously more sustainable alternative ways to get around besides a private jet. That is why we propose a €3,000 levy on all private jet departures.

Without feasible alternatives in place for people, however, a carbon tax is not incentivising behavioural change; it is only a punishment. Climate justice and fairness need to be at the heart of climate action if we are to succeed in making the transition to a sustainable economy.I thank the Minister of State for his time and for coming in today.