10. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Minister for Finance the total amount by which he intends to increase the carbon tax, by category, in each year until 2030. [28015/25]

Sentiment score: 0.11

Will the Minister outline the amount by which he intends to increase the carbon tax during the course of the Government's term, setting out clearly what that will mean for families and workers facing a cost-of-living crisis?

Sentiment score: -0.03

The carbon tax is unique. There is nowhere else we can point to in the current budget where we can say with certainty, "This is what the Government plans to do". We cannot tell pensioners where their pension will be in five years' time but we can tell them by how much precisely Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and those champions of rural Ireland, the Healy-Raes et al., are going to increase the cost of heating their home. We cannot tell motorists how much money will be given to fund the roads network or precisely how much will go to improving transport connectivity, but we can tell them exactly how much money will be added to the cost of driving to work. The worst is that none of this actually works. The money is not ring-fenced, despite what the Government protests. This is a revenue-collecting measure that disproportionately affects working-class, poorer and rural households. Does the Minister accept and appreciate just how bizarre this situation is? Will he finally see sense and engage constructively in order that we can tackle environmental challenges without fleecing ordinary workers and families?

Sentiment score: 0.11

I really would appreciate a bit of honesty from the Government. It is not true to say that the carbon tax is ring-fenced. The Comptroller and Auditor General confirmed that he could account for about 61% of it and be assured that it was going towards environmental measures. As with all Government decisions, taxes are collected and decisions are made as to how they are spent, so to say that we need the carbon tax to pay for environmental schemes probably sets out how committed the Government is to those environmental schemes in the first place. The Minister can talk about mitigating measures and alleviating measures that are in place but carbon tax will not do anything for the environment. It will just make the lives of my neighbours - families in rural communities who have no choice but to use their cars every day to drop their children to school or to go to work and who have no choice but to use the home heating system in their home - harder. I do not know why the collective that makes up the Government - Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and now the Rural Independent Group - simply cannot understand and appreciate that.

Sentiment score: 0.02