Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman has remarked that this year’s Budget measures are little more than “tinkering around the edges.”
The Dublin West TD made his comments as his Dublin West stablemate, Jack Chambers, delivered the Budget in his role as Minister for Public Expenditure.
O’Gorman specifically criticised Simon Harris’ non-committal attitude towards climate change measures in the speech.
The Fine Gael leader said that energy transition is important to his government, and announced a number of measures that O’Gorman dubbed insufficient.
The climate measures in this year’s Budget amount to a review of the Bike To Work scheme, a review of the TaxSaver scheme, a review of sustainable aviation fuel, an extension of the VRT relief for ecars and an increase in the microgeneration credit by €200.
O’Gorman said, “this tinkering around the edges does not show a government serious about transitioning away from fossil fuels and making renewable energy easily available for all households across the country.”
O’Gorman also criticised the government for writing off 4 years of revenue from carbon tax, and giving no indication of how that particular funding gap will be filled by this government.
The Green TD said that the Budget measures for home retrofitting are “laughable.”
This year’s Budget sees a mere 2% increase for homes wishing to retrofit, after a record level of investment was secured during the Green tenure in government.
In last year’s Budget, SEAI was allocated €640 million to support home retrofits, and this year’s budget is €654.5 million.
“This is the importance that the government puts on supporting households to move to cheaper renewables – a 2% increase. This is the direct impact of the changes to the carbon tax. A laughable increase in the retrofit budget,” he said.