Offaly and midlands must get 'fair' slice of €812 million carbon tax pot

Laois, Offaly and other Midland counties must get a fair share of the big pot of cash raised by the Government from people having to pay carbon tax on fuel according to Sinn Fein TD Brian Stanley.

The Laois Offaly TD said that he has been informed me that €431.1m was collected in 2018 and €430.4m collected in 2019.

“The Midlands must get its fair share of €861 million collected in carbon tax in the past two years" 

"This is a huge amount of money and was based on €20 per carbon tonne. It was recently increased to €26 per tonne, a measure supported by FG, FF, Greens and Labour but was opposed by Sinn Fein.

“The Midlands has had massive job losses due to the scaling down and cessation of peat harvesting for power generation and fuel.

"Laois/Offaly have been particularly hit. Hundreds of jobs that were lost during the scaling down and ending of horticultural peat harvesting on the Coolnamona Group of Bogs in Laois have never been replaced.

“In Offaly whole communities have been hit with massive redundancies at Bord na Móna and ESB. Also, when workers retired over the past 2 decades in these companies, the fact is they were never replaced," he said.

The TD had a number of questions.

“How much of this 861m collected in carbon tax in 2018 and 2019 has been put into replacements jobs in the Midlands for former Bord na Móna workers?

"How much of this €861m was used to kickstart the biomass and biogas industries in the Midlands and incentivise farmers to grow energy crops?"

Deputy Stanley said he has raised this issue again in the Dáil this week and the need for a major stimulus for the Midlands. He said a portion of this money which was collected prior to any increase in carbon tax, must now be directed towards job creation and infrastructure in Laois/Offaly. He said this should be in addition to funding from the EU “Just Transition Fund’’.

"The funding of €31million made available to date to finance the Just Transition in the Midlands is in no way sufficient. What is needed is a major stimulus package to reboot the economy in the region. There are huge job opportunities in the areas of Renewable Power, Low Carbon Construction, Retrofitting, Waste Recovery and Reuse.

“The Midlands is perfectly positioned to take advantage of these and to lead the low carbon revolution that will happen over the next 3 decades," concluded the statement.