A €20 tax on each tonne of carbon fuels would generate €825 million for the State's coffers annually, the Green Party said today.
The Greens also dismissed claims by big business, highlighted in today's Irish Times, that a carbon tax would damage competitiveness and cost jobs.
Environment and employment spokesman Mr Eamon Ryan said the revenues raised from the carbon tax should be "recycled back into the economy" in the form of lower PAYE, reduced VAT on fuel and increased social welfare payments, rather than being used by the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, to plug the hole in the Government's finances.
Ireland has the worst record in the European Union in terms of controlling toxic emissions, the party leader Mr Trevor Sargent said. The Government risks massive fines of millions of euro unless action is taken.
He said the Green Party were campaigning for increased investment in renewable energy, adding that Ireland could reach a target of 20 per cent of all energy coming from renewable resources by 2010, and possibly even 100 per cent by 2050.
The growth of dormitory towns in Dublin's hinterland and the corresponding growth in the use of cars to commute to work poses a massive threat to the Irish environment, according to Mr Ciarán Cuffe. "The transport sector . . . now accounts for 15 per cent of our total greenhouse gas emissions, with this figure expected to rise to 19 per cent by 2010," he said.
He argued that it was "ridiculous" that 90 per cent of the Government's transport policy budget is geared towards improving facilities for motorists when it should be concentrating on better public transport and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the process.
Yesterday, Fine Gael's environment spokesman, Mr Bernard Allen, called on the Government to ring-fence all revenue from carbon taxation for use in environmental projects. "Otherwise, the carbon tax will end up as another stealth tax, on top of the dirty dozen taxes imposed since the general election".
