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The State took in a record €5.9 billion in environment taxes in 2025, the Central Statistics Office has revealed.
In a new data release published today, the CSO confirmed that this collection was an increase of 7% on the previous year, with households paying the “largest share” of the total.
The new statistics demonstrate that households accounted for 59% of these taxes, contributing €3.5 billion to the total amount collected in 2025.
Commenting on the release published today, Statistician in the Environment Division Clare O’Hara detailed the primary drivers behind the significant revenue surge.
“Environment taxes reached a record €5.9 billion in 2025, increasing by 7% (€0.4 billion) compared with 2024,” O’Hara said.
“This was the highest amount of environment-related tax revenue collected between 2016 and 2025. The increase was mainly driven by the increase in tax revenue from the PSO levy on electricity consumers, excise duty on heating and transport fuels, and carbon tax.”
O’Hara also noted that despite the absolute monetary increase, the percentage of overall tax revenue generated from environmental levies had fallen over the past ten years.
“Although environment tax revenue reached its highest level on record in 2025, it represented a smaller share of Ireland’s overall tax revenue than a decade ago,” she continued.
“Environment taxes accounted for 4.3% of total tax revenue in 2025, compared with 7.7% in 2016.”
Energy taxes remained the largest source of this revenue, accounting for roughly two thirds or 66.7% of all environment taxes collected in 2025.
This category consists mostly of taxes on energy products like heating and transport fuels, which rose 12% to €3.9 billion.
More than half of this specific figure came from excise duty on fuels such as petrol, road diesel, and marked gas oil, while carbon tax receipts rose by 10% to €1.2 billion in 2025.
Meanwhile, transport taxes, which include motor tax and vehicle registration tax, accounted for 32.7% of all environment-related taxes.
This category saw a slight drop, falling by 2% to €1.9 billion overall according to the newly published data.
Pollution and resource levies, such as the plastic bag and landfill taxes, made up the remaining 0.5% of the total revenue, increasing from €10 million in 2023 to €30 million in 2025.
When looking at the economic sectors of the taxpayers, businesses accounted for the remainder of the revenue after households.
The services sector paid €1.5 billion, the industry sector contributed €700 million, and the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector accounted for €100 million.
These new figures arrive against the backdrop of an ongoing cost of living crisis that has placed significant financial pressure on households across the country.
As the State continues to implement various climate policies and carbon levies to meet international emissions targets, the financial impact on ordinary consumers remains a prominent issue.
Energy and transport fuel costs constitute a large portion of average household expenditure, meaning environment-related taxes are heavily tied to the day-to-day expenses of the public.
As reported by Gript yesterday, the Government is currently reviewing the trajectory of the carbon tax ahead of the upcoming Budget, though they remain “very committed” to the tax.
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