123. Deputy Louis O'Hara asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance to outline the amount of carbon tax collected for the years 2024, 2025 and to date in 2026. [68497/26]

Will the Tánaiste outline the amount of carbon tax collected in 2024, 2025 and to date in 2026 and how he proposes to support householders who have borne the brunt of continuing increases in that tax in recent years?

I thank the Deputy for his question. The carbon tax has been a central pillar of Ireland's climate policy framework. It has provided a clear and credible long-term signal in terms of our work as a country to transition away from fossil fuels and move towards a low-carbon economy.

Provision was introduced in the Finance Act 2020 to provide for annual increases in carbon tax rates up to May 2030. Carbon tax rates on petrol and auto-diesel are generally legislated to increase at budget time each year up to 2029, with the increase delayed until 1 May for all other fuels up to 2030. In April, the Government deferred the 1 May 2026 carbon tax increase on home heating fuels and marked gas oil, MGO, until October in light of the extraordinary circumstances and increased fuel prices created by the conflict in the Middle East. I am advised by Revenue that the amount of carbon tax collected was €1.067 billion in 2024 and €1.176 billion in 2025. The provisional figure to the end of August this year was €866 million.

Revenues raised from the carbon tax are allocated for expenditure on just transition and climate-positive measures, including funding social welfare measures, agri-environmental schemes and retrofitting programmes. The net impact of the combined measures funded by the carbon tax has consistently been shown to be progressive. As of budget 2026, the Government has allocated over €4.2 billion in carbon tax revenue for those purposes since 2020. Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, analysis consistently shows that the lower income deciles are better off as a result of the social protection measures funded by the increased carbon tax.

The Government remains committed to our climate action policy, which includes the carbon tax. However, we took the decision to pause the 1 May increase to help alleviate fuel price pressures being faced by households and businesses. In budget 2026, €1.114 billion was allocated to climate action measures and to ensure the most vulnerable were protected from the unintended impacts of the increase.

I will make one further point in the interests of fully informing the House.

As the Deputy has heard me say before, we published a tax strategy group paper over the summer. It outlined different ways one could consider the carbon tax reforms that could be made. We are considering that in the round and I have particularly signalled that changes be considered for kerosene and gas.

Households across the State are under massive pressure at the moment when it comes to the cost of filling their car and heating their homes. In terms of home heating oil, we brought forward proposals on eight different occasions just this year to remove the carbon tax on home heating oil, but the Government has opposed that on every single occasion. There has been no reduction of carbon tax or excise duty on home heating oil this year, while prices have gone through the roof. Over the past number of years, we have seen successive Governments heap more upward pressure on the cost of home heating fuels, petrol and diesel through continued carbon tax increases, and there are further ones planned all the way through to 2030. The carbon tax is a regressive tax which forces the most vulnerable and disadvantaged households in this State to pay a premium. These are households that very often have no other alternatives available to them. The ongoing fuel price crisis shows us that when the cost of fuel and home heating oil increases, it is the most vulnerable and most disadvantaged people who feel the impact the most. The ongoing increases are going to further exacerbate that inequality. When will the Tánaiste finally acknowledge this reality, stop pretending that high carbon tax and tax increases are working, and give households a break?

I appreciate that when it comes its application, the carbon tax is not equally felt by all citizens. I take the point that the data shows that those living in rural Ireland are twice as likely to use home heating oil as a fuel source - as an example - as those living in larger towns and cities. According to the latest available CSO figures, around 26% of households in Ireland use it as their main heating fuel, so that is probably around half a million households. The Government understands that these are disproportionately older households, disproportionately rural, and in a lot of cases, lower income households as well. Many households are eligible for the fuel allowance. We extended it by four weeks earlier this year, meaning that close to 470,000 households will have benefited from additional payments, totalling €152 per household. The fuel allowance season has now commenced for this winter period. I am also conscious that there are those who use home heating oil who do not qualify for the payments, so the upcoming budget will consider all of these issues in the round.

We would also have to consider - I think the Deputy is endeavouring to do this too - that we stay on the right side of the ETS2 derogation. We do not want any unintended consequences in relation to any changes that may be brought forward.

The Tánaiste says that he understands but this year he has not done anything on home heating oil. He has not reduced the excise duty or the carbon tax on that at a time when prices have increased massively. We all understand that prices have increased because of the conflict in the Middle East. The Government still had options available to it to alleviate that pressure for households, but it has simply chosen not to do so. That needs to happen as a matter of urgency. The Government needs to completely remove the carbon tax from home heating oil to give households a break. Carbon tax increases need to be taken off the table. In the context of the prices we have at the moment and people, especially in rural Ireland, not having the alternatives available to them, it is totally unjustifiable for the Government to continue to proceed with these increases. They should be taken off the table. What choice does a person have if they are renting and their landlord does not want to get rid of the oil tank? What choice does a person have in rural Ireland where there is no public transport available to them, where they have to put petrol or diesel in the car? They cannot afford an expensive electric vehicle. These tax increases are anti-rural. They disproportionately impact low-income households and the Government needs to acknowledge that reality. Remove the carbon tax completely from home heating oil. Cut the tax on petrol and diesel as well to continue to give people a break, because households cannot sustain any more increases.

We can have a difference of view on this. We have taken a number of measures to try to help people with energy and fuel supports. It is probably the largest in the European Union per capita. I agree with the Deputy on the point that not everybody is in a position to change their home heating oil tank. I think particularly of older people as well. It just simply might not work for people. Quite frankly, there is a difference between saying do not increase the taxes versus a complete abolition of the tax. We need to operate in this space while being conscious of the ETS2 derogation. We all take our views and our advices in relation to this. We have a derogation from opting into the ETS. We do not want to have a situation where we transfer revenues being collected by one form of taxation and spent domestically here over to a large payment of billions of euro to the European Union. We have to consider all of those issues. The tax strategy group paper, which no doubt Sinn Féin will be considering as part of its alternative budget too, talks about trajectories and different products. The Deputy is correct; there are things the Government can choose to do. The Government cannot do everything. The Government can help people with costs in general, including the cost of energy and filling the home heating tank through a variety of means, including the income tax system.