Don’t like fuel price hikes? Go electric, shrugs Bruton
THOUSANDS of rural commuters who rely on petrol and diesel fuel to commute to work every day have been told to ‘think about switching’ to avoid the fuel price hikes.
Environment Minister Richard Bruton said the Government was offering people the chance to make a change.
As revealed by the Irish Daily Mail last month, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe yesterday confirmed that, as part of Budget 2020, the carbon tax will rise by €6, meaning the price of petrol and diesel was set to rise from midnight last night.
While the new funds generated by the increase will be ring-fenced for fuel-poverty measures and transition initiatives, it is unlikely to sit well with the thousands of squeezed-middle workers in rural communities who are forced to rely on their cars to go to work.
But as a part of Budget 2020, the Government announced €36million allocated for electric vehicles; and €30million of this will be specifically for grants for electric vehicles, with €8million coming from the new revenue generated by the carbon tax increase.
When asked yesterday what commuters should do if they rely on their cars to travel to work and cannot afford the costly electric vehicles, Mr Bruton said: ‘What we’re doing here is a graduate increase in the price of fossil fuel because of the damage it does.
‘It will represent a 1.4% increase, roughly speaking, in the price of diesel, so it is relatively manageable,’ Mr Bruton said.
‘But at the same time, we are offering these opportunities for people to make the change.
‘I suppose what we are signalling, and this is what carbon pricing is about, is that locking yourself into high-carbon infrastructure is dangerous for the country, dangerous for your own family.
‘Fossil assets are not things we should be seeking to invest in. So it is a signal, at a low level at this stage, to indicate to people it’s time to start thinking of switching.’
Although far cheaper to run than petrol or diesel vehicles, electric cars can be costly to buy and their price is often cited as a reason why people can’t afford to make the change. However, Mr Bruton said the Government was making incentives available ‘at a time people are, in huge numbers, now starting to switch’.
He expects the market to help the uptake of electric vehicles over the coming years, as he also said ‘we’re at the tipping point very shortly, where it will absolutely pay people to make that switch if you look at the whole life of the vehicle.
‘So we are maintaining the incentives, even at a time when the technology is making the diesel vehicles more and more attractive.’
He also pointed to the fact that the grant to buy a new fully electric car, at €5,000, along with VRT relief of €5,000 and a grant for a charger of €600 brought the total grant money available to €10,600 as well as concessions on tax and rates.
‘We are offering a suite of things that people can get involved in the important steps to change and become less carbon intensive,’ Mr Bruton said. Last night several Extinction Rebellion protesters were removed from outside Leinster House by gardaí, although no arrests were made.
Hundreds of members of the global movement are protesting this week, promising to shut down city centres to highlight the need to fight climate change.
Climate action measures were one of the centrepieces of Budget 2020, which was unveiled yesterday afternoon, and Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe described it as being the ‘defining challenge of our generation’.
It is currently set at a rate of €20 per tonne, and it is eventually set to rise by €6 every year until it reaches €80 per tonne by 2030.
The carbon tax increase started from midnight last night.
It will raise €90million in 2020, and this will be specifically ringfenced to fund new climate action measures and for investment in a low carbon future.
However, the increase in home heating oil will not kick in until next May and fuel allowance was increased by €2 per week in a bid
Gradual increase in price of fossil fuel
to offset the increases for those who are at risk of fuel poverty.
Budget 2020 also included: ÷ €5million for peatland rehabilitation, a 250% increase’ ÷ A €6million ‘Just Transition’ Fund that will be devoted to priorities identified by local communities hardest hit by climate measures such as the closure of Bord na Móna operations. ÷ The replacement of the 1% diesel surcharge introduced last year with a nitrogen oxide emissions-based charge, which will apply to all cars registering for the first time from January 1, 2020. ÷ Extend the Benefit in Kind zero rate on electric vehicles to 2022.
Of the revenue generated by the carbon tax increase, an additional €3million will be allocated for electric vehicle infrastructure, doubling the number of local authority on-street charge points, a new scheme for chargers at apartment blocks and rollout of fast-charging taxi ranks at transport hubs.
Mr Donohoe also said the Finance Bill would ‘provide additional relief through the Diesel Rebate Scheme to hauliers to compensate that sector for the increased cost of fuel’.
Both the Finance Minister and the Communications Minister yesterday denied that the carbon tax hike is a so-called ‘cash grab’. Mr Bruton said: ‘Every cent that we raise is going to be ploughed back into changes that will help people decarbonise their lives.’
Speaking on RTÉ last night, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said: ‘A lot of the public, particularly younger people, are saying we’ve waited too long to act, and pretty much anyone in the scientific community accepts that carbon tax on its own won’t stop climate change, but we won’t stop climate change without it.’
The €6 increase to the carbon tax will mean that a full tank of diesel will rise by some €1.18 per fill, and a tank of oil for a house will rise by approximately €15.54. Coal would also see an additional 72c per bag increase, while briquettes would rise by 15c a bale.
The AA said the increase was expected to add some 2c to a litre of petrol or diesel. And it said the increase alone would do little to encourage commuters to leave the car at home and the Government must now follow through on plans to invest in sustainable transport, particularly in rural areas.
Conor Faughnan of the AA said: ‘Investing in public transport infrastructure, Luas-like systems across our main cities, quality cycle lanes, all these measures would do far more to get people out of the car than a tax increase ever will.’
‘Every cent is ploughed back in’