O’Gorman criticises Sinn Féin for carbon tax stance

Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman has criticised Sinn Féin for their stance on the carbon tax.

During a Dáil debate on the issue last week, Sinn Féin’s finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty called for the carbon tax to be scrapped as a cost-of-living crisis measure.

Sinn Féin’s finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty said that the government are “not listening to families who are worried about how they are going to fill the car or older people and elderly people whose heating oil is running out or running low, and who cannot afford the refill.”

He said that a planned increase to home heating oil on May 1, and the removal of excise duty on home heating oil, petrol and diesel must be stopped.

Northside Sinn Féin TD Louise O’Reilly said, “the carbon tax that is coming down the line will increase the cost of heating people’s homes. People cannot afford it as it is, and they most definitely cannot afford an increase. The opposition will be united in confronting the Government on this and putting forward solutions, which is exactly what we have done,” she said.

O’Reilly’s hopes of a unified opposition voice on the issue were dashed by O’Gorman, who said 

“I think the targeting of the carbon tax that is part of the motion is a step backwards; the reason we have a fuel price crisis in Ireland now is not because of the carbon tax but because our economy continues to be entirely dependent on imported fossil fuels.”

He said that he was “not in a position” to back Sinn Féin’s motion.

The Green leader stated, “the carbon tax is the one piece of public policy that is ring-fenced to tackle that, through immediate supports for the most vulnerable, increased social protection payments and longer-term measures to support the insulation of homes through a range of targeted measures.”

“If we cut the carbon tax, that would only prolong our addiction to dirty, unpredictably priced imported fuels. People are hurting because of the Iran war. The government can take targeted steps to address that, but changing the carbon tax is not the right thing to do at this time,” he said in reference to Sinn Féin’s motion.

The Dublin West TD stated, “I respectfully say that the Cabinet cannot delay clarity for Irish householders any longer.”

“It is our party’s view that the most vulnerable need to be protected immediately. We see this in the context of a €200 payment for every household taking the fuel allowance or household benefit package. We estimate that this is about 750,000 households and that it would cost about €150 million.”

“We also think there should be an examination of another round of energy credits. We think this should be in conjunction with a targeting mechanism at this point and that this would manage to insulate large numbers of Irish households, particularly those in the squeezed middle, from the impact of the energy price spikes we are seeing now,” he said.