THE LABOUR Party has called on the Government to postpone the carbon levy on home heating fuels until measures are in place to help low-income families meet higher fuel costs.
The party’s social protection spokeswoman Róisín Shortall says such households were set to suffer a double fuel blow, as the fuel allowance “season” – from September to April – ends this week for more than 300,000 families, and the new carbon levy on home heating gas, oil, coal and peat begins from May 1st.
“For people who rely on oil for their home heating, the impact is particularly severe. The retail price of home heating oil is due to rise by up to 8.7 per cent because of the carbon levy,” Ms Shortall said. “It also comes on top of the huge expense of heating homes during one of the coldest winters for decades.”
While noting the Minister for Finance had promised a vouched fuel allowance scheme in his budget to offset the fuel increases, Ms Shortall said: “It has never been precisely clear which fuels these vouchers will apply to, when the scheme would start and which households would qualify.”
She said that when questioned in the Dáil last week, Minister for Social Protection Éamon Ó Cuív “confessed he simply didn’t know when a new scheme might start”.
“It is a measure of the Government’s utter incompetence and obsession with the banks that compensating measures will not be in place before the levy starts,” the Labour TD said.
The Department of Social and Family Affairs said it was aware of the impact of the tax on vulnerable households and noted that the budget saw the fuel allowance season extended from 30 weeks to 32 weeks, with an increase of €2 a week in the rate of payment.
The carbon tax on heating fuels was timed for this time of year when fuel needs were reduced.
The Irish Farmers Association has called for the carbon tax on farm diesel, due to come into effect on May 1st, is to be scrapped.
