Sir, – John FitzGerald opines that to stave off the risk of another boom-and-bust cycle the next government may have to create a budget surplus, and he avers that from an economic and environmental perspective such additional taxes are best raised on consumption, carbon or property ("Overheating Irish economy would need urgent remedial action", Economics, March 1st).
Taxes on carbon are simply a way of describing excise duty-type taxes raised on consumption of fossil fuel-based energy and are described as carbon taxes to cloak this fact.
A true carbon tax would have to be levied on all sources of carbon-containing gases released into the atmosphere.
In Ireland, the amount of carbon contained in the methane emissions of ruminant cattle is equivalent to the carbon dioxide emitted by motorised vehicles, and another huge source is the combustion of fossil fuels to generate electricity, in which sector the State is the largest emitter.
In addition, carbon dioxide is emitted in copious , but unmeasured, quantities by all animals, including humans as a consequence of their respiration, and very large quantities of methane are also emitted from waste disposed of in landfill facilities.
This is not to mention gas leaks from the national grid and domestic appliances and gas evolved from decaying vegetation in wetlands.
The emissions of carbon-containing gases from these sources certainly outweigh all those from combustion of fossil fuels by vehicles and space-heating applications, which are the only sources that would be subject to a so-called carbon tax.
I have no doubt that it is beyond the courage, and most possibly also the ability , of any minister of finance to attempt to impose a carbon emissions-related tax on any of these sources. – Yours, etc,
DAVID WHITEHEAD,
Kinvara,
Co Galway .