Two Carlow Kilkenny TDs are at odds over upcoming Carbon Tax hike

Two local Government TDs are at odds over the upcoming hike in Carbon Tax.

It follows increasing calls for the measure to be reconsidered given the current fuel crisis and general rise in the cost of living.

But Heritage Minister and Carlow Kilkenny Green representative Malcolm Noonan says we are in a climate crisis and the measure is Government policy which they will not be abandoning, telling KCLR Live earlier; “We’re in this transition where we need to get to a very significant level of deep retrofit of our housing and once that happens I think that’s going to reduce the reliance on energy, reduce the reliance on coal and on other fuels and that’s what we need to do and the carbon tax is the only mechanism of doing that, right across Europe carbon taxes were implemented it was supported by our parties in the Dáil through the Climate Bill”.

However, on the same show local Fine Gael TD John Paul Phelan says given the circumstances at the moment a deferral simply has to happen; “I just don’t know, I think there’ll be a political hell to pay if it isn’t deferred because of the issues we spoke about, about people queueing for reduced price food, the cost of living across the board has increased so dramatically that I just think there’s no case not to defer it, not to get rid of it completely, but to defer it”.