Taoiseach: 'Carbon Tax not as significant as political debate would suggest'

LAST UPDATE | 4 Apr 2022

TAOISEACH MICHEÁL MARTIN has said that next month’s hike in Carbon Tax “is not as significant as the political debate around this would suggest”. 

Speaking to reporters today, Martin said the Irish government has “gone farther than most other European Union countries” in dealing with the cost-of-living crisis but that the government “can’t take measures every single week”. 

An Taoiseach was speaking after Environment Minister Eamon Ryan said earlier that the government is “going to have to do a lot more” to tackle rising inflation. 

Ryan also said the public is to be encouraged to be energy efficient, with practical advice from Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) expected in the coming weeks.

SEAI already provides tips for people about how to reduce energy consumption and these include running appliances at a lower temperature or not boiling full kettles for a cup of tea. 

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald TD said yesterday that an emergency budget was required to ease the burden on struggling households. McDonald also that the planned Carbon Tax hike next month should be scrapped. 

The tax is set to increase next month from €33.50 to €41.00 per tonne of carbon. It is a charge applied to carbon-emitting fuels such as coal, peat, oil and natural gas. 

An Taoiseach said today that the political debate around the tax is louder than is warranted.

The Carbon Tax in the overall scheme of things is not as significant as the political debate around this would suggest, let’s be very honest about that. The issues are of a far greater scale than the Carbon Tax issue, which was put into legislation to meet an existential crisis of our time, climate change.

Martin said the government is “conscious that over the year people’s incomes and disposable incomes” are being affected by increasing costs. 

He said the government has already allocated €2 billion since the Budget to cost-of-living supports but cautioned that governments must “avoid chasing inflation”. 

I think everybody, including the opposition, need to be very honest about this. Fuelling inflation will not help people in terms of the cost of living. So we have to do this sensibly and skillfully in terms of how we respond.

Asked about advice for people to reduce energy usage by half filling kettles and having shorter showers, Taoiseach says that “energy efficiency makes sense at any time”.

“Energy efficiency makes sense anytime of the year, crisis or no crisis, so let’s not being so dismissive about energy efficiency, it’s an important issue,” he said. 

Targeted

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Minister Ryan said the government will focus on further measures to help those who are most at risk of fuel poverty. 

He said that rising inflation is being caused by the international markets for gas, oil and coal. 

He promised “a whole series of initiatives” depending on how long the war in Ukraine and inflationary problems last. 

When the government announced cost-of-living supports in February, the measures were criticised for being universal and not helping the people most in need. 

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Ryan acknowledged today that the measures were universal but said “that was right because everyone had been affected”.

He said the upcoming removal of the PSO levy on electricity bills is another universal measure that will take effect over the coming months. 

The minister said however that new measures needed to be more targeted. 

“We need to target particularly those at risk of fuel poverty and some of those measures will take time, some of them will be better placed for the budget where we really need to look at what your how the social welfare system can kick in and to take time and to get that right,” he said. 

Ryan said that “more immediately” people and the State “need to focus on energy efficiency” and that this approach has been backed by the International Energy Agency. 

The next phase really has to be about energy efficiency, helping people to save money with some practical measures that cut the cost of a bill. We’ll bring to government in the next two weeks some of those measures, some of them in planning systems, some of them regulatory, some of them a campaign to help explain to the public what are the simple ways in which bills can be cut.

Ryan said the government wants to help people reduce their bills and that “incentives” are not being ruled out. 

He added that focusing on a switch to local power supplies will also be a focus in the coming weeks and months. 

“Not to be dependent on imported fossil fuels, switching to our wind and solar and hydro and biomass and other local power supplies here,” he said. 

On Friday, The Journal reported that the government has sought permission to build two emergency electricity generators in Dublin. The two generators are planned to be located in North Wall and Huntstown Power Station in Co Dublin.