I move amendment No. 2: In page 3, to delete lines 24 to 31 and in page 4, to delete lines 1 to 3. As we discussed earlier, the substance of this amendment is to remove section 1(b) from the amendment Bill. The Minister should take that under consideration. In contrast to every other energy measure announced by the Government this week, all of which had a time limit of two months, this Bill authorises another 18 months in potential tax cuts which gut the Climate Action Fund. I have serious concerns about that. If I look at the 2024 Climate Action Fund report to see what the Government might defund, it includes the community Climate Action Fund for local authorities, bog rehabilitation, solar panels on schools and improving the energy efficiency of public buildings. This is potentially giving the Minister the unfettered power to stop all that climate action for 20 months in the middle of an energy crisis and when we are supposed to making progress on climate action. People may ask what planet the Minister is on. It seems as if he wants to burn this one. I wish to be clear with my colleagues and the public. This is what is called non-voted expenditure. That means that the levy is created by legislation and ring-fenced for NORA, which is then authorised by the Minister to transfer the funds to the Climate Action Fund. In that process, there is no Dáil vote, no budget set by the Minister for Finance and voted on in October and no Cabinet discussion required. It is completely at the discretion of one person. Even the 2020 Act authorising the Climate Action Fund does not allow that kind of action with no oversight. It specifically states: ... the Minister may, in each financial year commencing with the financial year in which the National Oil Reserves Agency (Amendment) and Provision of Central Treasury Services Act 2020 is commenced, following consultation with the Agency, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform and the Minister for Finance, give a direction to the Agency to pay into the Climate Action Fund in that financial year the amount specified in the direction. Even the original transfers to the Climate Action Fund require consultation with someone else. However, by crazy contrast, this Bill requires no consultation with anyone for a tax cut of up to €200 million. The Minister did not tell us this in his opening remarks. His Department's memorandum on the Bill did not describe this dynamic. Either the Minister and his Department did not realise what they were doing or they have hidden something from the Dáil and the public. That is a very serious matter in either instance.
Sentiment score: 0.01
I am not withdrawing it. The Minister was not transparent on it. We have put forward this amendment, which would require the Minister to at least seek further approval from the Oireachtas, as he would be required to do in the case of any other emergency energy measure. That is only reasonable. It is only in keeping with the Government's commitments on excise taxes and haulier rebates, which were authorised last night and have a deadline of two months' time. What is most shocking about this Bill is that the Government has not been upfront and honest about it. It has done it an underhand way with 24 hours' notice, asking the Dáil to grant it unprecedented financial power. It is an unprecedented reversal on climate action. The Government thought no one would notice. Some of us do notice. We do our homework. This potential raiding of the Climate Action Fund for a year and a half, by a single Minister without Oireachtas or Cabinet oversight, at the expense of future generations should not stand. No Member of the Oireachtas who believes in climate action should stand for unlimited power this year and the next to raid the Climate Action Fund. Earlier today, the Minister said he wanted to do more to support families during the energy crisis. Then he should tell me what community groups that are reliant on the community climate action funding he will deprive if he pushes this through in the future. He said his resolve to support renewable energy has never been stronger. Then he should tell me exactly which schools will not have solar panels if he continues with this relief beyond the two months. He spoke about Ireland doing far more than the UK. Is the UK authorising a potential reversal of any bog rehabilitation and climate action? What will the Minister say to the people in the boglands of Offaly about that? What will be his response to Deputy Clendennen, who spoke eloquently about Offaly leading in climate action? How will he explain to him that he is stripping millions from his constituency with this measure if he continues with it? This is not good enough. It is obfuscation, it is a rush and it is a power grab. The real question is how committed is this Government to climate action so I urge the Minister to support our amendment.
Sentiment score: 0.06
I thank the Minister for committing to bringing it to Cabinet. He did not have to do that so I appreciate it. Bringing any other oversight to it involving the Dáil or committees is laudable and I am glad to see the Minister engage on a good faith basis on that. I also acknowledge the climate action that is ongoing. Retrofitting, solar panels and the rehabilitation of bogs are very positive and the Social Democrats are very supportive of that. The fear is that if the Minister continued with a reduction in the levy to the Climate Action Fund, those things would stop and there would be no further bog rehabilitation and no further schools photovoltaic programme. That is a very real concern and that is what this Bill allows. Importantly, the Minister said that it was specified in the Bill. I see no reference in this Bill to the Climate Action Fund - not one. It does not articulate the fact that this levy goes to climate action. It goes to the Climate Action Fund. That is not in this Bill.
Sentiment score: 0.15
Yes, and then 80% of it goes to the Climate Action Fund. The entirety of the Climate Action Fund, or 99% of it, is funded by this levy so the Minister cannot tell me he is being transparent. The Minister cannot tell me that he was totally upfront with the Dáil here; he was not. The Minister did not mention it in his opening remarks. It is not in the Bill. It is not in the explanatory memorandum from the Department. It is important that the Minister be upfront with people on this, that the levy is, in fact, the only major funder of the Climate Action Fund in the State and that, without it, we will strip €10 million a year from schools for solar panels. That is what we are talking about here. The Minister is correct that the levy is approximately €10 million a month. It goes up and down, as the Minister said. It was approximately €120 million, as it was, in 2024 and it is forecast in the explanatory memorandum as being approximately the same for this year. That is a very significant chunk of money over a very long period of time. What we are saying is that it is fair enough to give relief for two months, as it is in excise and as it is in haulage, but to say that the Minister should have the power to extend it by another €180 million and strip the Climate Action Fund of all its funding for this year and next is an insane proposition. The proviso that allows the Minister to do that in this Bill, which, by the way, does not mention the Climate Action Fund and is not transparent on that, should stand, and so I will be pressing the amendment.
Sentiment score: 0.07