Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said proceeding with the tax increase is “neither intelligent nor sensible”.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin says next month’s planned carbon tax hike will be “offset” so that “there’ll be no additional cost to people”.
The Taoiseach made the comments in the Dáil on Tuesday (5 April) after Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald called on the Government to scrap the increase, scheduled to come into effect on 1 May.
Calling the carbon tax hike “the wrong decision at the wrong time”, McDonald said it will make life harder for families and workers already struggling with soaring energy bills.
“It is crazy that your Government which should act to protect households will come along at the start of next month and pile on more pressure,” she said.
“At the weekend, Government ministers – including Eamon Ryan – vowed that the carbon tax increase will go ahead despite the extraordinary crisis that households face.
“Almost in the same breath, Minister Ryan told workers and families to save money by taking shorter showers and by driving less.
“A worn-out public again is left shaking their heads at the out-of-touch reaction from Government ministers,” McDonald added.
In response to McDonald’s comments, the Taoiseach said the Government cannot deal with rising levels of inflation caused by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine on a “week-to-week basis or on one tax alone in isolation”.
“What we actually require is an inclusive process involving social partners, involving stakeholders in society to intelligently and sensibly respond to this crisis now in the middle of a war,” Martin stated.
“That means social dialogue, it means dealing with the pay issue, it means dealing with welfare, it means dealing with tax and also the costs across the economy that people have.
“But it also means dealing with climate as well and we can’t ignore the climate issue in this respect.”
Taoiseach Martin also said that the Government had taken a number of measures in the budget and since then to respond to the rising cost of living but added what is needed now is a “more comprehensive response”.
Following the Taoiseach’s comments, McDonald highlighted that Sinn Féin has called for a mini-budget to address the crisis, before describing the decision to add any level of additional cost to people’s home heating expenses as “neither intelligent nor sensible”.
Martin then called McDonald’s response “political and electoral and nothing more”.
“What I would like to say to you is this, any increase in the carbon tax will be offset, so there’ll be no additional cost to people,” he explained.
“But I said to you, we need an inclusive process here involving and including climate change as well.
“Yesterday’s report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – it warned that it’s now or never to avoid climate catastrophe.
“The United Nations chief António Guterres called out doublespeak on climate. He said: ‘Some Governments and business leaders are saying one thing but doing another. Simply put, they are lying and the results will be catastrophic.’
“I think that is the view of a number of people in this house, including the Sinn Féin party. They’re a doublespeak on climate.
“We will make sure that any increase on carbon tax, we will offset but we have to do much more than that.”
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