Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent)
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143. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will fully honour the commitments made in the Programme for Government - Our Shared Future to ring-fence €1.5 billion of carbon tax receipts over the next ten years for agri-environment schemes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44089/23]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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As per Sections 27, 28 & 29 of the Finance Act 2020, the carbon tax will increase by €7.50 a tonne as part of Budget 2024. The increase on transport fuels is effective from 11 October 2023, while the increase on home heating fuels will not take place until 1 May 2024.

In the Programme for Government - Our Shared Future, the Government committed to ring-fence all revenues raised from the increase in carbon tax rates for the period out to 2030, estimated to be €9.5 billion, and to allocate these amounts to:

• Ensure that the increases inthe carbon tax are progressive by spending €3 billion on targeted socialwelfare and other initiatives to prevent fuel poverty and ensure a justtransition;
• Provide €5 billion to partfund a socially progressive national retrofitting programme;
• Allocate €1.5bn of fundingto encourage and incentivise farmers to farm in a greener and moresustainable way.

This includes for Budget 2024, in which the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is being allocated €113 million funded from increases in the Carbon Tax to part-fund the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) and to continue prior commitments on green agriculture pilot projects. This will support farmers as they undertake a range of actions which will result in improved outcomes on biodiversity, climate, air and water quality. From 2020 to date, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has received €223million in carbon tax funding for these measures, including as part of Budget 2024.

Further details of carbon tax allocations are provided in ‘The Use of Carbon Tax Funds’ papers published annually on Budget Day, which are available to download on www.gov.ie .