Retrofit plan and carbon tax
Deputy O'Rourke attacked the fairness of the retrofit plan and called for wealth taxation instead. The Tánaiste defended the scheme as carbon-tax funded, ring-fenced over ten years, and said retrofit numbers were well ahead of target.
This week the Climate Change Advisory Council said it is unlikely that the first carbon budget will be met. Nowhere is this Government's failure clearer than in its national retrofitting plan. That plan is unfair and regressive. This week Irish Rural Link joined a long list of organisations, including St. Vincent de Paul, Social Justice Ireland, Friends of the Earth, the Irish Heart Foundation, and Sinn Féin, that have highlighted the need for a fundamental reorientation of the national retrofit plan to ensure those in greatest need are prioritised. For its part, Sinn Féin has set out a fairer retrofit plan. Importantly, the Government is way off its own targets. A total of 500,000 homes are to be retrofitted to BER B2 by 2030 but just 35,000 or 7% are completed at this stage. Approximately 400,000 heat pumps are to be installed by 2030 but just 9,643 or 2.4% have been installed to date. The national retrofit plan is unfair and it is not working. Will the Government accept this and overhaul it?
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First of all, the retrofitting plan is being paid for by the carbon tax which Sinn Féin has opposed on successive occasions.
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I am sorry but no retrofitting plan will work if it does not have revenue that is sustainable over a ten-year period.
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What we did, in line with previous recommendations from Oireachtas committees, was to put in place sustainable, ring-fenced funding for retrofitting. It was the first time that was ever done and I would appeal to the Deputy to be very clear as to whether he supports that revenue stream for retrofitting. If he does not support it, then all of the rest is hot air.
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Tax wealth; the Government should tax wealth.
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On our targets, by the way, the retrofit numbers are up 80% in one year. We beat the target by 10,000, with more homes than ever availing of support. Our fuel use for heating fell considerably in 2023 as a result. That happened because, as I said, the Government ring-fenced the majority of our carbon taxes to support people to retrofit their homes.
Use of coal for electricity fell by half last year. Oil is down 80% and gas is down 7%. Farmers are responding as well.