Poor Brian Cowen's been taking a beating in the Dail, what with the economy on the decline and what's Fianna Fail going to do about it? Jobs are going, the Exchequer isn't collecting as much revenue as it was last year, and the situation is growing dicey.
Comhar, the national sustainable development council, has a brilliant plan to solve the mess. What better time, they believe, than now, when people are worried about paying this year's heating bill with fuel prices expected to be higher...what better time than to introduce a tax?
They'd like a carbon tax added to the new budget. Nothing outrageous, of course, only about 550 million euros per annum. Everyone would contribute, from the household in Rathkeale to the farmer in Tipperary, all paying twenty euro per tonne of CO2 expelled. One would expect that respiratory activity would not feature in the calculations, but then again, this is a tax we're talking about and everything's fair game.
The deep thinkers of Comhar believe that adding 5 pence to the cost of a litre of petrol will grow the GNP and create jobs. The money raised could then be used to promote "emissions-savings activities" such as not driving to work, not heating the home, and sitting around in the dark with the television off. Sounds like the good old days in the Emerald Isle, doesn't it.
Dr. Lisa Ryan is the director of research for Comhar. You can bet she's not an economist, and you can bet that An Taoiseach isn't about to consider her carbon tax proposal. Things are bad enough without adding fuel to the economic fire.
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