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Fuel Poverty

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 September 2020

Tuesday, 22 September 2020

Ceisteanna (156)

Brendan Smith

Ceist:

156. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Minister for Climate Action and Communication Networks the status of an ESRI report regarding fuel poverty due to be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25152/20]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí scríofa

I refer to the reply to Question No. 159 of 8 September 2020.

While policy matters relating to taxation are a matter, in the first instance, for my colleague, the Minister for Finance, the Programme for Government makes a number of clear commitments in relation to the future of carbon tax.

The Programme underlines that carbon tax has an important role to play in addressing behaviours with negative externalities, in this case greenhouse gas emissions. It, therefore, commits to increasing carbon tax to €100 per tonne by 2030, through annual increases of €7.50 per annum to 2029 and €6.50 in 2030.

The Programme for Government also commits to hypothecating all additional carbon tax revenue into a Climate Fund raising an estimated €9.5 billion over the next ten years. This Fund will be utilised over that period to:

- Ensure that the increases in the carbon tax are progressive by spending €3 billion on targeted social welfare and other initiatives to prevent fuel poverty and ensure a just transition.

- Provide €5 billion to part fund a socially progressive national retrofitting programme targeting all homes.

- Allocate €1.5 billion to a REPS-2 programme to encourage and incentivise farmers to farm in a greener and more sustainable way. This funding will be additional to funding from the Common Agriculture Policy. It will include incentives to plant native forestry and to enhance and support biodiversity.

Given the importance of a strong evidence base for policy decisions, my Department is undertaking a programme of work with the ESRI to examine the distributional benefits of utilising carbon tax receipts as set out in the Programme for Government, including the impact of retrofitting on alleviating fuel poverty.

This work builds upon a significant volume of research has been undertaken in recent years, by the ESRI and others, into the distributional impacts of carbon tax. This research has helped to inform decisions taken in the context of Budget 2020, to ring-fence a portion of the additional revenues from increasing the tax to €26 per tonne, into measures to address fuel poverty, including increases to the Winter Fuel Allowance as well as additional funding for the Warmer Homes Scheme, funded by my Department.

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