If carbon tax makes people buy fuel in the North, it will still help us apparently reduce our emissions figures, writes KILIAN DOYLE
I have few issues with carbon tax.
Don’t get me wrong. I’ve no great objection to dipping into my very shallow pockets to fund any measure to drive down our fine little country’s carbon footprint. But I have my doubts that this will.
If the Goverment think it will convince us all to drive less, they are sorely deluded.
Experience tells us that price rises, no matter how drastic, make not a blind bit of difference to the amount of fuel we use. People, particularly those in areas with woeful public transport, still need to get around.
They’re not going to suddenly decide to walk the 15km journey to get to work, simply because the Government has whacked an extra few bob on petrol.
What this tax will do, of course, is drive even more people to fuel tourism in the North. I know that. You know that. It’s probably safe to assume they do too. Perhaps this is all part of their plan to achieve the Programme for Government’s goal of a 3 per cent year-on-year reduction in emissions?
Because the fuel is sold in Northern Ireland, it goes down their emissions tab rather than ours, even if it’s used here. Which means our ministers, armed with their heavily-compromised data on Ireland’s annual production of CO2, hit their targets and get to swan about climate change conferences basking in the glory. Cunning, eh?
(While we’re on the subject, I’ve always loved the phrase fuel tourism. It conjures up images of gruff, stingy Cavan fathers shunting their protesting families into a Pajero for a weekend break taking in the sights and sounds of Fermanagh’s finest filling stations. I hear they have some lovely ones. Very picturesque, with big forecourts for the kids to play on. Where else would you want to be?)
At least the Government has finally seen sense and moved towards basing tax on the actual pollution a car causes rather than its potential to pollute. Tax the fuel, not the engine.
Our current road tax system, despite being geared towards encouraging the purchase of low-emissions vehicles, is inequitable. If I have a car that emits as much CO2 as a snail, yet I drive it 40,000km a year, why am I paying one-fifteenth of the amount of tax as someone who brings their V8 to the shops and back once a month?
That’s the motoring equivalent of weighing people on their way into an all-you-can buffet and charging the fat ones more than their skinny mates on the spurious assumption that they’ll necessarily scoff more grub.
I also have a problem with the name. A carbon tax, in the strictest sense, is one where the entire revenue generated will be spent on green initiatives.
But in our case, it won’t. Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan himself admitted last week that not all of the extra loot collected would be ring-fenced to encourage lower emissions, confessing it “will also allow us to maintain or reduce payroll costs”.
All of which means that while I’m filling up my tank, I can’t get a warm fuzzy feeling that my extra few pennies are going towards paying for a foster home for defrosted polar bears or on recycling umpteen unused Government reports into briquettes for freezing pensioners. Why? Because I’m actually buying lunch in the Shelbourne for some triple-chinned pen-pushing civil servant instead.
Brian, do everyone a favour, would you, and be honest with us. Call a spade a spade. Admit that carbon tax is just another tool for levering yourself out of the financial bear-trap you’re in and we may begin to admire you for your candour rather than your mastery of double-speak.
To quote the late, great Malcolm X: “I have more respect for a man who lets me know where he stands, even if he’s wrong, than the one who comes up like an angel and is nothing but a devil.”
My sentiments exactly.