Roche defends Govt decision to abandon carbon tax plans

02/06/2005 - 13:33:37
Environment Minister Dick Roche has defended the Government's decision to abandon a planned carbon tax designed to reduce greenhouse emissions.

Mr Roche was questioned on the matter in light of a study published today predicting that Irish temperatures would rise by between 1.5 and two degrees in the next 50 years.

The minister insisted that the Government had abandoned the carbon tax in favour of more efficient ways of reducing emissions and combating global warming.

"If we actually deal better, for example, with our building regulations, deal better with the way we consume energy, we'll be making long-term savings rather than making the hypothetical savings that might have occurred if we simply jacked up the price of energy," he said.