Half billion in fuel tax sitting in the bank

[moneymakeover]

Independent today,

Financial statements from the Climate Action Fund (CAF) show that 70pc of the money raised through a 2c levy on fuel in the past five years was left sitting in the Government's bank account.
.

The 2c-a-litre levy, which has been reduced in light of the fuel price crisis, is paid to the National Oil Reserve Agency (Nora).

Most of the money raised through the levy is transferred into the CAF, which finances climate action projects.

However, an analysis by the Irish Independent shows that the CAF has left €278m unspent between 2020 and 2024.

It recently emerged that €258m in carbon-tax revenues flowed back into the Exchequer between 2020 and 2023, despite the belief it went to climate causes.

This means €536m that was collected in taxes has not yet been spent.

 

[joe sod]

That puts the whole argument that the cost of the hard won fuel tax reliefs reliefs costing 700 million into context, they have 500 million already collected in carbon taxes that they don't know what to do with. That adds alot more weight to getting carbon taxes abolished completely or reduced back to very low levels. Its politically toxic now for them to go back to increasing carbon and fuel taxes again when this crises is over in iran.

 

[joe sod]

Now with the spotlight being shone on this half a billion of unspent carbon taxes you can be sure the authorities will be scrambling to find some "green project" to fire this money at now. Maybe an order for another 150 electric buses costing half a million each is in order now.

 

[rob oyle]

The fact that this Government isn't supporting the move away from fossil fuels isn't a reason to cut the taxes on these fossil fuels. It means those in power need to explain why they're not investing in clean energy/infrastructure.
In fact the contrary is true - cutting the cost of fossil fuels weakens the argument for those investing in clean(er) energy.

 

[JoeRoberts]

The fact that this Government isn't supporting the move away from fossil fuels isn't a reason to cut the taxes on these fossil fuels. It means those in power need to explain why they're not investing in clean energy/infrastructure.
In fact the contrary is true - cutting the cost of fossil fuels weakens the argument for those investing in clean(er) energy.

But the govt stated the reason for not postponing the carbon tax increase was that the money was used for green projects. So they lied.

 

[Saturn]

But the govt stated the reason for not postponing the carbon tax increase was that the money was used for green projects. So they lied.

I am sure you are not lying. So could you point me to where the Govt said "the money was used for green projects".

 

[Zenith63]

It’s politically toxic now for them to go back to increasing carbon and fuel taxes again when this crises is over in iran.

It will be a huge gift to the likes of Soc Dems/Greens not to increase them too though - FG (supported by FF) introduced the carbon tax and set out the increases to 2030 but are now backing out at a time Ireland is way behind its targets, all under their stewardship - so politically toxic either way. I imagine that is why they were not keen to mess with them in the first place.

 

[joe sod]

It will be a huge gift to the likes of Soc Dems/Greens not to increase them too though - FG (supported by FF) introduced the carbon tax and set out the increases to 2030 but are now backing out at a time Ireland is way behind its targets

I heard an engineer on Pat Kenny show this morning talking about Moneypoint, he said that those targets won't be met anyway, they are completely unattainable and unrealistic , doesn't matter that they put them into law. His point was that Moneypoint needs to be kept as a backup and not decomissioned afterall it was built to give Ireland guaranteed power after the first oil shock of the 1970s that Moneypoint could still supply the country with power no matter what happened in the ME. It is fully depreciated and keeping it as a backup would provide security and wouldn't contribute much to overall CO2 emissions given that Irelands total energy consumption will still be relativelty heavy on fossil fuels, 80% of our total energy consumption is fossil fuels even with all those wind turbines.

 

[rob oyle]

I heard an engineer on Pat Kenny show this morning talking about Moneypoint, he said that those targets won't be met anyway, they are completely unattainable and unrealistic , doesn't matter that they put them into law. His point was that Moneypoint needs to be kept as a backup and not decomissioned afterall it was built to give Ireland guaranteed power after the first oil shock of the 1970s that Moneypoint could still supply the country with power no matter what happened in the ME. It is fully depreciated and keeping it as a backup would provide security and wouldn't contribute much to overall CO2 emissions given that Irelands total energy consumption will still be relativelty heavy on fossil fuels, 80% of our total energy consumption is fossil fuels even with all those wind turbines.

Michael Fitzmaurice is on the radio often too, talking about how the emissions targets won't be/can't now be met, without actually saying why (because no Government, not even the last one, devised a plan to do so). The romantic review of Moneypoint ignores that it was the single biggest emitting site in the State when it was in full flow (about a fifth of Ireland's energy emissions IIRC?). Coal stands next to turf as the least efficient energy source.
We haven't transitioned from fossil fuels because we've not planned to do so - every time renewables come on to the grid they are bought up by new demand (primarily data centres) rather than used to decommission fossil fuel plants.

 

[galway]

Its politically toxic now for them to go back to increasing carbon and fuel taxes again when this crises is over in iran.

It is Politically toxic for FF for the simple reason Farming have it in for FF since the went into Government in 2007 with the greens FG know well FF will be taking the heat when the present Government increasing carbon tax,
FF and the Greens did a very bad job selling green policies,

I know where I live the biggest ringleader for want of a better word was a very will known member of FF the only reason he was out was payback time for FF going into Government with the greens in 2007,

Michael Fitzmaurice is on the radio often too, talking about how the emissions targets won't be/can't now be met, without actually saying why (because no Government,

FF and FG have never recovered in Michael Fitzmaurice /Ming Flanagan Galway/Roscommon before the turf cutting Ban you had 2 FF and 1 FG
At present you have Michael Fitzmaurice Martin daly FF and Claire Kerrane SF (no FG TD and only 1 FF,

the election before 2020 to 2024 You had Michael Fitzmaurice independent Denis Naughton FG and Claire Kerrane SF, ( no FF or FG TD)

Green policies without seeing and feeling the Benefit do not work taxing people who already have a positive outlook towards green initiatives has the opposite affect and turn people off,
The Greens leaders so far are like Boris leadership all talk expect others to do do the heavy lifting while they sit on their bums,

 

[JoeRoberts]

am sure you are not lying. So could you point me to where the Govt said "the money was used for green projects".

Quick google will show them saying it is ring fenced.

 

[Saturn]

Quick google will show them saying it is ring fenced.

Exactly as I recall it. Which is quite different from it "was used".

 

[JoeRoberts]

Exactly as I recall it. Which is quite different from it "was used".

Was used as in the continous sense of the term

 

[galway]

Quick google will show them saying it is ring fenced

The money should have been spent on projects to help support people who could not afford the cost of moving away from fossil fuels The damage is done the impression is out there The carbon tax is a tax on people who could not afford to move away from fossil fuels and is now resented,

 

[faketales]

For some context about €3.8bn was collected in carbon tax between 2020 and 2024.

So about 7% of what was collected up to 18 months ago is not spent or allocated and another 7% went into the exchequer to be spent of whatever I suppose.

 

[arbitron]

The money should have been spent on projects to help support people who could not afford the cost of moving away from fossil fuels The damage is done the impression is out there The carbon tax is a tax on people who could not afford to move away from fossil fuels and is now resented,

The Greens pushed FG and FF to include hypothecation of carbon tax in the programme for government. The agreement was to use it to fund retrofitting, social housing energy upgrades, measures against fuel poverty, just transition programmes, agri schemes (e.g. ACRES/REPS-style farming schemes), etc.

The legislation to carry this out never materialised - blocked by FG and FF.

 

[Zenith63]

I heard an engineer on Pat Kenny show this morning ... His point was that Moneypoint needs to be kept as a backup and not decomissioned afterall

Seems the engineer (Eamonn O'Reilly) may not have been accurately representing the views of his membership (Irish Academy of Engineers) in that interview.

Members distance themselves from engineer body’s call to burn coal for electricity​

 

[Saturn]

Seems the engineer (Eamonn O'Reilly) may not have been accurately representing the views of his membership (Irish Academy of Engineers) in that interview.

The report is inherently flawed because of its premise" “Regardless of what Ireland might achieve in reducing GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions, it will have no impact on the country’s climate.”

If we accept this premise then several European countries of similar population size should do nothing - because it "doesn't matter". The combined populations of these countries is comparable to the population of any one of several larger European countries. So any of these can also claim exemption. Very soon you get to the point where everyone is exempt.

If instead it looked at Ireland's emissions on a per capita basis then it certainly does matter.

 

[joe sod]

Seems the engineer (Eamonn O'Reilly) may not have been accurately representing the views of his membership (Irish Academy of Engineers) in that interview.

Its actually the opposite, the academy of engineers recommends keeping moneypoint open and lifting the ban on oil and gas exploration but there are some dissenters on the academy like the provost of trinity college and the professor of sustainsbility. It has 180 members so the dissenters maybe high profile and obviously highly political aswell given the positions they hold. However the membership is much wider with retired engineers etc more free to actually voice what they really think rather than be censored by their political or university masters. Trinity has become a highly political over the last few years and is now very much on the left , so its not a surprise to see trinity academics being the main dissenters.