Government will rake in €1.1billion from carbon taxes in 2022
CONSUMERS will pay over €1bn in carbon taxes this year despite a growing backlash over the rising cost of living.
Taxpayers forked out a record €650m in carbon taxes in 2021, but this will surge by an extra €450m this year when new increases are factored in.
The figures were confirmed by Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe in response to parliamentary questions from Sinn Féin finance spokesman Pearse Doherty and his party colleague, Public Accounts Committee chairman Brian Stanley.
It comes as the Government examines new supports for families in response to rampant inflation.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar is pushing to increase the €100 energy credit announced last December. As it stands, the estimated €210m cost of the rebate is five times lower than the anticipated carbon tax take for the year.
Minister Donohoe confirmed: ‘I am advised by Revenue that the amounts collected in respect of carbon tax in 2020 and 2021 are €493.6m and €651.7m respectively.’
But this is only the beginning of a swingeing series of increases that will take more than €9bn out of taxpayers’ pockets over the course of the next decade.
Mr Donohoe confirmed: ‘The most recent projection of additional carbon tax revenues for the period 2021 to 2030 amounted to €9.2bn.’
Pearse Doherty has criticised the carbon tax as ‘a con job’ which won’t ‘provide a single alternative fuel source or means of travel’.
And in a sign of unease in the Coalition, Fianna Fáil TD Willie O’Dea warned: ‘The last thing we need is the spectacle of prices being jacked up for ideological reasons. People are coming into my office in a state of genuine destitution over food and fuel.’
Under current plans the price of fuel will rise consistently over the remaining three years of the Coalition’s term.
There will be carbon tax increases of €600m in 2023, €750m in 2024 and €890m in 2025. The climate action plan also commits the next government to impose further yearly increases totalling €6.170bn from 2026 to 2030.