Dublin South West TD, Se\u00e1n Crowe, has called on the government\nto \u2018poverty proof\u2019 its next Budget and said that fuel poverty in particular needs\nto be addressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Sinn F\u00e9in TD described the government\u2019s commitment to\nthe Committee on Climate Action demand that it undertakes an analysis of the\nimpact of fuel poverty on vulnerable households, as \u201cnot worth the paper it was\nwritten on\u201d after it emerged that none of the relevant government Departments,\nincluding Climate Action, Finance, and Public Expenditure, have carried out a\nsingle review into the extent of fuel poverty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Deputy Se\u00e1n Crowe:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0\u201cIt is deeply frustrating that for all of its talk on climate change the government\u2019s approach is to increase carbon taxes with the burden being placed on those who can least afford to pay.<\/p>
\u201cThe government\u2019s commitment to the Committee on Climate Action demand that it undertakes an analysis of the impact of fuel poverty on vulnerable households is\u00a0not worth the paper it was written on. None of the relevant government Departments including Climate Action, Finance and Public Expenditure have carried out a single review into the extent of fuel poverty.<\/p>
\u201cDespite all the government\u2019s rhetoric, their approach to this Budget will inevitably impact disproportionately on low and middle income earners who can least afford to make changes, such as buying electric cars or retrofitting homes.<\/p>
\u201cClimate change is most the defining challenge of our generation and must be faced head on.\u00a0<\/p>
\u201cThe best way to fight climate change is not to penalise ordinary families and working people by increasing their fuel costs or utility bills. <\/p>
\u201cUnless measures are in place to give families alternatives, a Carbon Tax is just a punitive tax increase and must absolutely be opposed.<\/p>
\u201cWe need to see climate change tackled in a progressive way that combines social justice and fairness with the obvious environmental demands.\u00a0<\/p>
\u201cWe need a retrofitting programme. People need to be able to easily switch to heat pumps, make the change to electric vehicles in a cost effective way, and avail of microgeneration. We need real investment in our public transport and a transformation of our society towards energy renewables<\/p>
\u201cThe type of Carbon Tax being proposed is not the solution, it is not poverty proofed, it is ineffective, its regressive, and it creates the illusion of action.\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dublin South West TD, Se\u00e1n Crowe, has called on the government to \u2018poverty proof\u2019 its next Budget and said that fuel poverty in particular needs to be addressed. The Sinn F\u00e9in TD described the government\u2019s commitment to the Committee on Climate Action demand that it undertakes an analysis of the impact of fuel poverty on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[438,114],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-budget-2020","category-fuel-poverty"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3951"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3952,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3951\/revisions\/3952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}