Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 101: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance his views on the carbon proofing of all fiscal measures; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2096/08]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The Government is not in a position to quantify the carbon impact of all tax and expenditure. I would point out to the Deputy that the Government's expenditure this year alone will be in excess of €50 billion. Determining the carbon impact of spending/tax policies, to the extent it can be done at all, would be a significant and time-consuming task, and in any event many do not have a carbon impact.

However, I accept that we must bear in mind at a general level the carbon impact of our actions particularly in light of the proposals that have emerged recently with respect to the EU Climate Change and Renewable Energy Package. In this regard I would point to the following developments:

The National Climate Change Strategy envisages the development of guidelines for Departments on appraising the costs and benefits of greenhouse gas mitigation policies and work on this will be progressed by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.

A Technical Steering Group, to bring all the Departments and relevant agencies' expertise together, is being established, to assess the potential impact on emissions of various policy measures, and

An Interdepartmental Working Group on Reflecting the Cost of Carbon Emissions in Cost Benefit Analyses is examining the potential for specifically capturing this cost in the appraisal of major infrastructure projects

All these measures should increase our ability to gauge the impact of new policies in the future.