Post by @michelle.smithoff

AXE THE CARBON TAX* three prices you all know: Diesel — €2.14 a litre. Petrol — €2.01 a litre. 1000 litres of home heating oil — €1850. How does an elderly person on €289 a week pay €1850 to heat their home? They don’t. They sit in the dark, no light, no heat, empty table. And it’s because of a tax that we were told would save the planet, but is really just taking money from your pocket. *When was it introduced?* Carbon tax was introduced in Ireland in the *2009 Budget by Brian Lenihan*. It came in on petrol and diesel on *December 10th 2009 at €15 per tonne*. Then on home heating oil and gas in May 2010. It started at €15. It’s now *€63.50 per tonne* and due to go to *€100 per tonne by 2030*. Every year it goes up automatically, whether oil goes up or not. *Is it an EU tax? No.* This is what people don’t get. This is an *Irish tax, introduced by the Irish Government, collected by the Irish Government.* Other countries have their own versions, but OUR rate is one of the highest in Europe. We are doing this to ourselves. The Government chooses to put it on your fuel every Budget. *What has it raised?* Last year alone, the Government took in a record *€5.9 billion in environmental taxes.* Carbon tax alone is now *€1.2 billion a year* — over a billion euro a year out of your oil tank and your car. And for what? The Climate Action Fund that it was supposed to fund has *€278 million sitting unspent.* *How can we cut it out? We don’t need it.* You are told “we can’t afford to axe it, we need the money.” That’s not true. We don’t need to find €1.2 billion. We just need to stop wasting it. Let me give you the facts, on the record: - The National Children’s Hospital — budgeted at *€650 million*. It has now cost *€2.24 billion*. That is *€1.59 billion over*. And builders BAM are now claiming another *€853 million* on top. One project — wasted more than the entire carbon tax take. - The HSE is *€577 million overspent* this year to end of July alone. - We spend *€450 million a year on agency staff* in the HSE — 50% of that goes to the agency, not the nurse. - *€336,000* on a bike shed in Leinster House for 18 bikes. *€1.4 million* on a security hut. *€100,000* on another bike shed at the Maternity Hospital. *€6.7 million* on an Arts Council computer that was never used. Friends, if you just ran the hospital job on budget, you could have abolished the carbon tax for a year and a half. The money is there. Corporation tax came in *€5 billion ahead of target*. They have the money. They are choosing to take it from the pensioner’s oil tank. *And it’s not just about driving.* When you tax diesel to €2.14, you don’t just tax the driver. You tax everything we consume. The farmer can’t afford diesel for the tractor. The lorry can’t afford diesel to deliver to the shop. The shop has to put up bread, milk, groceries. The family pays more for everything. Higher fuel means higher cost on everything we consume — food, delivery, farming. Families can’t afford rising costs because you taxed the fuel that moves Ireland. So I am asking every TD here tonight: Axe the carbon tax on home heating and motor fuel. Now. Not in 2030. Now. Let our elderly turn the heat on. Let our families afford to drive to work, to school, to hospital. Let our farmers afford to farm. Enough is enough.