Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move recommendation No. 23:

In page 113, to delete lines 8 to 15 and substitute the following:

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This recommendation seeks to pause any increase in excise or carbon tax on consumer fuels, such as petrol and diesel, for the duration of 2024. It also seeks to reduce the level of excise applied to home heating oil by more than 50% until 1 May 2024, saving households approximately €64 per tank fill. The policy objective of the carbon tax was to establish a price floor on carbon-based fuels. It is acknowledged that the carbon tax is regressive, with the cost disproportionately borne by low-income, rural and single-parent households.

With regard to the stated policy objective of increased carbon taxes to set a price floor on carbon-based fuels, it is now widely anticipated that, in the words of the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, "The energy transition will for sure be accompanied by a rise in the price of fossil fuels." At present, Ireland has the seventh highest carbon tax in Europe and among the highest energy prices in Europe as well.Under the stewardship of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party, we have exhausted almost 50% of the 2021 to 2025 carbon budget in the first two years. We are on track to exhaust 123% of the allocated carbon budget by 2030. By refusing to depart from its business-as-usual approach, the Government will almost certainly max out the 2025 carbon budget before it has left office. Successful environmental and climate action cannot be reduced to any one single policy, with supply-side investment yielding results being crucial in the transition to a low-carbon economy.