Budget’s green initiatives are ‘too little too late’

THE new excise relief for biofuels and the €20 million carbon fund, both announced in Wednesday’s Budget, were yesterday described by the Green Party and the Labour Party as “too little too late”.

Finance Minister Brian Cowen told the Dáil that he wanted 2% of the fuel market to be taken up by biofuels by 2008.

To that end, he introduced new proposals in the Budget which will allow additional excise relief for biofuels.