A member of the Climate Change Advisory Council has stated that the government “has to” proceed with the planned rise in carbon tax.
Professor Peter Thorne of Maynooth University made the remarks on Saturday during an interview with Cormac Ó hEadhra on RTÉ Radio 1, reports RTE.
He explained that the increase scheduled for 1 May — from €63.50 per tonne of fuel to €71 per tonne — must be implemented, warning that failure to do so could result in Ireland facing higher charges from the European Union. The carbon tax on diesel and petrol had already been raised to €71 per tonne following last October’s budget.
“The Government has to go ahead with this, primarily because if it doesn’t, we will lose the derogation on the new ETS2, Emissions Trading Scheme 2, [and] that will mean that rather than paying the carbon tax, you would be paying a tax to Brussels”,
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Prof Thorne noted that the scheme is due to come into effect from 1 January, reports RTE.
He said the country would either pay carbon tax domestically or be “at the whim” of ETS2, which he described as “highly fluctuating”.
“Rather than having certainty, you’d have huge economic uncertainty”, he said, reports RTE.
Professor Thorne added that carbon tax is among the most “redistributed taxes” in Ireland, with a significant portion ringfenced to support measures such as fuel allowances, retrofitting social housing, SEAI retrofit grants, and the ACRES biodiversity programme.
Sinn Féin’s Matt Carthy, speaking on the same programme, argued that the carbon tax places further strain on households and said that amid the ongoing cost-of-living crisis and recent fuel price increases, “to suggest they would be penalised further is absolutely nonsensical”, reports RTE.
Jennifer Whitmore of the Social Democrats said she accepted that people are under pressure, but argued that the government should instead focus on fuel excise duties.
She also urged authorities to “get on top of the price gouging that is going on”, not only at petrol stations but also within the electricity market, reports RTE.
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