Galway Green Party Bye-Election candidate claims fuel protesters 'held country to ransom'
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Green Party Bye-Election candidate Niall Murphy has defended the carbon tax, claiming delaying its increase was reducing supports for farmers and the most vulnerable. He also claimed the fuel protesters ‘held the country to ransom’.
The former city councillor said 32,000 homes were retrofitted under the Warmer Homes scheme, which is funded by carbon tax.
“It’s available to people in receipt of welfare payments in seven categories and it ensures that they stay warm. As oil prices surge, those homes are using less oil. We need the carbon tax to continue to protect those most vulnerable and to reduce dependency on imported fossil fuels.
“Similarly, the carbon tax funds farmers in receipt of payment from the ACRES scheme. It is helping farmers to move to more sustainable farming methods. Calls to scrap the carbon tax are calls to scrap these schemes that benefit small farmers and vulnerable households,” he said.
He said the Government should not have “bowed to pressure and deferred” the scheduled increase in carbon tax from its original date on May 1 until October.
“Parties such as Independent Ireland claim to represent rural and the less well-off members of society but attacking the carbon tax is actually an attack on a subsidy for farmers and those suffering fuel poverty,” Mr Murphy said.
“The motivation behind emphasising the carbon tax over other taxes seems to be part of an agenda of denying climate change. By holding the Government and the country to ransom, then protesters have set the precedent that this tax is up for grabs and we can expect further calls for it to be reduced in future,” he added.
Mr Murphy said removing the carbon tax would only reduce a litre of petrol by 16.35c and a litre of diesel by 18.74c.