Greens slam decision to scrap carbon taxes

The Green Party has criticised the Government’s decision to abandon the planned introduction of carbon taxes next year.

The Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats coalition confirmed today that it had scrapped the plan due to the financial burden it would place on businesses and consumers.

However, Green Party TD Dan Boyle said this was disingenuous as the Economic and Social Research Institute had pointed out how the effects of the tax could be offset by reductions in PAYE and VAT and increases in social welfare payments.

Mr Boyle said the move meant Ireland could also face a huge bill for failing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in line with its commitments under the Kyoto Protocol.

“What the Government has done is make sure that the Government which follows them after the next general election will have to pick up the pieces for their failure to have a proper environmental taxation policy,” he said.

Other opposition parties expressed strong criticism of the decision to abandon the plan.

Labour’s Joan Burton TD said the announcement effectively left Ireland without any strategy for dealing with CO2 emissions.

“Global warming and the threat to the planet from climate change have not gone away,” she said.

“Neither has the Government’s legal agreement with other EU states to meet a defined limit of greenhouse gas emissions during the period 2008 to 2012 with severe fines for missing the target.

She claimed the Government should take energy saving policies more seriously and that the announcement did nothing for poorer families, particularly elderly people with little or no insulation in their homes.

Fine Gael environment spokesperson, Bernard Allen TD, said if commitments on greenhouse gas emissions were not met the Irish tax payer would be forced to foot hefty bills.

“Ireland would have to pay penalties of up to €1.45bn by 2008 and up to €4.3bn by 2012,” he said.

“Publication of the detailed analysis which the Government claims to have carried out would help us to have an informed debate about this decision.

“It might also allow us to judge whether the Government has simply deferred this decision for purely political reasons.”

Meanwhile the Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA) welcomed news of the U-turn. The road freight industry was in line to be one of the sectors most affected by the controversial tax and had lobbied intensely for exemption.

It claimed carbon tax could have added up to €6,000 in extra fuel costs per vehicle each year.

Jimmy Quinn, IRHA communications director, said: “It’s a triumph of common sense over ideology and it has saved hauliers from further financial burden which they can well do without given the current disastrously high cost of energy.

“Licensed Irish road hauliers are non-discretionary users of diesel fuel and thus their demand is inelastic as opposed to private users. Diesel fuel is the raw material of the haulage industry.”