Taoiseach brushes aside Sinn Féin calls to delay carbon tax hikes

Mr Martin brushed aside Sinn Féin calls to delay carbon tax increases and he argued the Government agreed last year on a nine-year scheme of increases to ensure Ireland would not be blown off track by “political rough periods”.

The Taoiseach was reflecting on the informal meeting of EU leaders in Slovenia on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, where discussions also included prospects on a common front to deal with the upcoming winter energy crisis with scarcity, distribution issues and price spirals.

Mr Martin said EU leaders at their summit had discussed the prospect of the European Commission, following on from its role in procuring Covid-19 vaccines, coordinating the bulk purchase of fuels like gas and oil.

He said the eventual success of the bulk purchase of vaccines had given this idea a considerable boost.

The Taoiseach said Ireland favoured this principle. But he added that the EU is far from the point of adopting that common energy-buying policy because of complications involving national energy policies.

The Taoiseach said he was concerned some EU countries may use the energy crisis of rising prices and supply problems to dodge their agreed obligations to deal with climate change. “We’ve got to watch that space politically. We can’t allow this crisis to derail the medium and long-term imperative of meeting our climate change targets,” Mr Martin said.

Mr Martin also brushed aside calls by Sinn Féin to delay carbon tax increases which are set by law to rise each year between now and 2029.

“That’s why we legislated last year to make this an annual event in anticipation of ‘rough periods politically’ like this one,” the Taoiseach.

He added that Ireland needed to build up a fund, via carbon taxes, to fund retrofitting insulation to homes, promote environmentally friendly farming, and crucially protect families at risk from fuel poverty.

The Taoiseach was speaking at the new Technological University Dublin, based in Grangegorman, which amalgamates many of the great technical colleges in the capital. Mr Martin launched a programme dubbed ‘Convene’, which is a collaboration between the Technological University Dublin and UCD Innovation Academy, linking into industry for research, education and training.

The Convene programme was awarded €17.5m by the Further Education Minister Simon Harris in 2020.

The Taoiseach said it had the potential to build effective links between business and education to drive Ireland’s economic development.

Mr Martin was speaking ahead of a special Cabinet meeting which decided to fall into line with 140 countries to imposing a minimum 15pc company tax rate – up from the current rate of 12.5pc – on multinational companies in this country.

Mr Martin insisted Ireland’s investment in education, especially beginning with Donogh O’Malley’s free secondary education in 1967, had played a huge part in attracting jobs to Ireland, and so did Ireland’s EU membership, which remains central to job creation.

He said the 12.5pc company tax rate was important also – but by no means central to the key incentives.