Smith says Ryanair get away “scot-free” with carbon taxes

People Before Profit MEP candidate for Dublin, Bríd Smith TD has condemned the Government’s double standards on carbon taxes.

She said that large corporations are not paying even though they are the biggest polluters, while ordinary people “must pay carbon taxes.”

The Southside TD said “the biggest carbon polluters in Ireland get off scot-free, even as ordinary people are stung with a carbon tax. Ryanair pumps out 10 million tons of carbon a year, but the jet kerosene it uses is exempt from a mineral oil tax. So while Eamon Ryan lectures people on ‘going green’ he does not dare to tackle Michael O’Leary and Ryanair.”

It is estimated that the government lost about €760 million last year as a result of not taxing the aviation industry.

Smith said “that money could have been used to implement free public transport. We could get huge numbers of people out of cars, reduce air pollution, and cut carbon emissions if Ryanair and Aer Lingus were properly taxed.”

“Instead, the Green Party wants to lecture ordinary people and tell us that we are to blame for the climate crisis. This is why it has imposed carbon taxes on the population, even as it gives the airlines a free pass.”

“Every time you put 60 litres of petrol in your car, you pay an extra €1.28 in a carbon tax. You pay €19.40 for every 900-litre tank of kerosene or €16.98 for 11,000 KWh of natural gas. But Michael O Leary and Ryanair are laughing all the way to the bank. We need a left government that will make the real polluters pay, and drop carbon taxes on ordinary people”.