Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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67. To ask the Minister for Finance the status of his Department's study of the impacts of carbon taxes. [45400/17]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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Ireland’s carbon tax covers non-ETS emissions arising from the combustion of fossil fuels, such as coal and oil, for uses outside electricity generation and heavy industry sector.

In the context of Ireland’s commitments under the Paris Agreement and other climate obligations the National Mitigation Plan commits to examine the impact of the carbon tax to inform policy on the tax.

As I announced in the Budget I have asked my officials and the ESRI to carry out a review of carbon tax with a view to bringing forward proposals for Budget 2019. The review will incorporate an examination of the role of the tax in driving changes to behaviour in households and business.

The ESRI are currently in the process of developing an energy model which would enable a deeper analysis of the carbon tax. It is expected that the model will be available to assess the impact and pricing of a carbon tax in the first half of 2018.