We are now over a month since the fuel protests and not a single cent of the Government’s fuel subsidy has been paid out to farmers and contractors. This scheme was announced to great fanfare to quell the protests, but the application process only opened in recent days. Farmers and contractors still do not know how much they will qualify for because the scheme is capped. The window for applications closes on 27 May, which is during one of the busiest times for farmers, contractors and accountants when they are buried with paperwork, basic income support for sustainability scheme, BISS, applications, VAT returns, etc. The scheme itself is deeply unfair. Applicants must produce receipts for the entire 12 months of the year. They are then paid a subsidy based on five fifths of their returns from the previous year. Farmers do not use fuel evenly across the year. It is heavily concentrated in the spring and in the summer, at a time when silage needs to be cut, fields need to be ploughed and tilled and crops are harvested. Calculating the payment on a monthly average from the previous year is deeply wrong. It is systematically flawed and unfair on farmers. I want to turn to the figures around the carbon tax. The statistics released to Aontú in replies to parliamentary questions tell a very different story to the narrative that the Taoiseach's Government is selling. The Government is on track to collect an additional €200 million more this year than last year. We also know that half a billion euro was collected in carbon taxes from 2020 to 2023 that was never spent on climate action measures. Essentially, half a billion euro is left over and not needed. The NORA levy is another tax that has generated half a billion euro since 2020. That account sits in surplus in the region of a quarter of a billion euro. This is a surplus of €278 million at a time when farmers are desperately crying out for help, at a time when margins in the agri-sector have never been as tight, at a time when inputs are going sky high and revenue is falling. Is the Government misleading the House in relation to carbon taxes and the necessity that the Taoiseach outlines? If it is all so necessary, why is so much money sitting in surplus? Why is so much carbon tax remaining unspent?
Sentiment score: -0.10
My question to the Taoiseach-----
Sentiment score: 0.00
Does the Taoiseach accept that the fuel subsidy package is totally inadequate for farmers and contractors?
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The very clear methodology we outlined over the fuel protest was to scrap carbon tax because that would have provided an immediate relief to farmers and contractors who desperately needed it. Instead we are now a month on from the fuel protest at a time when the cost of fuel is still very high. Green diesel is still extraordinarily high in terms of last year's figures and there has been no relief and many farmers have no idea when they will receive that relief. That is what the Government should have done. It should have removed the carbon tax. The Taoiseach's has made the point on many occasions that the carbon tax is necessary. The actual data says otherwise. Some €500 million is unspent in relation to carbon charges. Is it the Government's intention to increase carbon tax year after year, irrespective of the price of fuel? Is it the Government's intention to increase carbon tax again this October?
Sentiment score: 0.09