Sinn Féin has insisted its Dáil motion to scrap proposed increases in carbon taxes will not impact on the State’s target to reduce carbon emissions by 51 per cent by 2030.
The party's finance spokesman Pearse Doherty has argued that carbon taxes disproportionately affect poorer people in rural Ireland who rely on diesel or petrol cars for transport, and home-heating oil to fuel their homes.
Ahead of the debate in the Dáil on Tuesday, the party is calling for a halt on proposed increases in carbon tax. The increase in tax for home-heating fuels is due to come into effect on May 1st, while the tax on transport fuels will increase on October 12th.
Mr Doherty said the deferrals should be much longer term than six or 12 months. He said the Government needed to find alternative ways to fund climate change besides carbon tax.
“The price of gas has increased by 28 per cent in the 12 months to January, the price of home heating has increased by 50 per cent in the same period, the price of petrol by 30 per cent, and the price of diesel by 32 per cent,” he argued.
He also defended Sinn Féin’s climate change policies and denied it was not a priority for the party. He said there were always alternative ways to fund the ambitious targets of halving emissions by 2030.
“We showed in terms of our alternative budget that we can still do retrofitting without taking money from some of the poorest people in the State at a time when energy prices are at record levels.
“There are always alternatives. We show every year where we can raise alternative revenue.”
He said the Government’s retrofitting programme announced last week would require many thousands of poorer home owners to put up €25,000 towards retrofitting.
“It’s a transfer of wealth from poorer income households to those who can dole out €25,000 to get their homes deep retrofitted or who can afford to buy a new electric vehicle, made up of a €5,000 grant from the State.”
He said if the Government did not index taxation bands, for example, that would gross at over €6 billion over 10 years. He said the Government had cut the bank levy by €63 million this year, funds which could have been used as an alternative to carbon tax.
Green Party TD Stephen Matthews, chair of the Oireachtas housing committee, said the motion by Sinn Féin illustrates an absence of any meaningful policies on climate action.
“I would be extremely worried about leaving climate action to Sinn Féin at all,” he said, adding that indefinitely deferring increases in carbon tax would have a huge impact on the State’s efforts to reduce dependency on fossil fuels.
“Carbon tax is only one part of the action to reduce carbon emissions. The tax allows us to deeply retrofit the homes of those who are most at risk of fuel poverty, enabling us to do 400 homes a month now. It also assists small farmers with environmental schemes.
“We give social protection payments to those who are most in need of assistance,” he said.
