Questions raised over Government's spending of €3bn carbon tax income
The Government has been urged to explain exactly how it spent more than €3bn worth of carbon tax income over the past decade amid fears that this year's €6 carbon tax budget hike will fail to be spent on climate matters.
Fianna Fáil TD and Dáil public accounts committee chairman, Sean Fleming, issued the demand at the latest meeting of the PAC on Thursday, saying there is no evidence the decade-long war-chest has been spent on the environment.
He was speaking 48 hours after Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe confirmed that carbon tax will increase by €6 per tonne next year, with the €90m in extra income ring-fenced for climate action issues.
Mr Fleming welcomed the decision, saying it is important the public knows how the additional money is being used.
However, he said there are legitimate questions over how the more than €3bn in carbon tax income since the start of the decade has been spent, saying there is no proof it has been used for climate action: "I don't know how it was spent."
He then quoted comptroller and auditor general Seamus McCarthy: "It’s not clear, or visible or transparent across any of the Government departments how the carbon tax collected to date has been spent."
Urging clarity on where the income went between 2010 and 2018, Mr Fleming said: "We need to know from the Department of Communications and the Department of Public Expenditure where that money was spent. It would be shameful to think that we’ve collected this in the name of carbon tax and it hasn’t been spent on carbon reduction and Co2 emissions issues. It appears there isn’t a system in Government to show where it has been spent. That’s not good enough."
During the same PAC meeting, Mr Fleming and Sinn Féin TD, David Cullinane, said they want to see a special meeting of the committee in the coming weeks to ensure the ongoing question is answered.
While the decision to increase the carbon tax by €6 in this week's budget has been pushed by the Government as a key step in tackling climate change, repeated questions have been raised in recent days over how exactly it will be used.
