Tipperary Sinn Féin councillors call for accountability on carbon tax spending.

Revelations that the public has been misled about how carbon tax funds are being used, warrants clear accountability from the government and those who have supported their policies, according to Tipperary Sinn Féin councillors.

The demand has been made by Tipperary Sinn Féin councillors David Dunne and Annemarie Ryan following revelations at the Public Accounts Committee that a significant amount of carbon taxes received are not ring-fenced for the purposes alleged by the government.

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Cllrs Dunne and Ryan said:

“We have always said that Carbon Tax disproportionately and negatively affects poorer households and rural communities.

“Throughout our opposition to this, we have been lectured by the government that the tax is designed to change behaviours and that all its funds are directed towards tacking fuel poverty and promoting green agricultural initiatives.

“However, when representatives of Revenue and the Comptroller and Auditor General attended a recent meeting of the Public Accounts Committee, it was made clear that Carbon Tax receipts go directly into the Central Fund, and that when any of the money later distributed is not spent, it goes directly back into the exchequer with little certainty that this money is subsequently used for the purposes it was originally collected.

“A specific discussion took place about €1.36 billion in increased carbon tax allocated by the Department of Public Expenditure from 2020 to 2023 for specified expenditure programmes.

“The committee was told that only 61% of the sum allocated could be verified as having been spent on  additional carbon tax measures. The PAC heard that this was due to expenditure being less than the amounts provided and therefore having to be surrendered (back into the general taxation fund), or because funding was mixed in with other core funding.

“At a time when the financial struggles that households, farmers and other businesses are facing are being exacerbated by the additional pressures imposed by the carbon tax, it has now been revealed that despite the government’s claims, we have little idea where the carbon tax people pay actually gets spent, or if it is being used for its stated purposes.

“In light of this, answers are needed from the government and from those who supported the Programme for Government regarding the checks and balances that are supposed to ensure carbon taxes are spent for the purposes they were collected.  “Because it is clear that is not being done and that there are significant unknowns about how much of the public’s money that is collected through carbon tax is actually being used for the purposes the government claims.

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“In addition to all of this, it is outrageous that the  government plans to hike carbon tax in January while at the same time abandoning energy credits.  This decision must be reversed, in the interests of the public good.”