As the costs of living crisis intensifies, it’s being reported that the Green party leader, Eamon Ryan, will suggest to the Cabinet that people need to take shorter showers, and cut down on car journeys to deal with rising energy costs.
The Irish Times reports that the package of measures the Minister will put together “would include a public awareness campaign advising steps such as cutting out one car journey a week in favour of walking or taking public transport, taking shorter showers, not filling a kettle to the top if not needed and turning down the thermostat by a degree.”
The Green Party leader is also expected to strongly oppose any measure to scrap carbon taxes, but he may recommend that the Public Service Obligation levy be scrapped.
With soaring electricity and gas bills being passed onto the consumer, and rising food costs being felt by households, the cost of living crisis has now overtaken housing as a priority for voters.
POLL
Ireland Thinks / Sunday Independent
Q. “Which of the following should be the biggest priority for public spending for the Irish government?”
Cost of Living Crisis: 56%
Housing Crisis: 34%
Relief for Ukrainian Refugees: 8%
Unsure: 3%April 2022
— Ireland Votes | #Vote2024 (@Ireland_Votes) April 3, 2022
The ESRI has forecasted that inflation may surge to the level of 8.5% or even higher over the summer, a rate that has not been seen since the 1980s when Ireland’s economy was in prolonged recession.
Last month, a “worst-case scenario” presented to the government looked at the possibility of rationing household gas and electricity if the energy crisis continues to spiral.
Minister Ryan’s previous suggestion of driving more slowly to save fuel and make what was in the tank last longer did not receive a favourable response from online comment at the time. On this platform, commentator Ben Scallan noted that: “As previously outlined, over 50% of fuel costs in Ireland are purely from taxes such as VAT, excise duty, carbon tax, etcetera. For every €100 of petrol you buy, €57 goes to the government. The tax is literally more than the cost of the product itself.”
A survey for the Edmund Burke Institute in January found that 56% of Irish adults had not heated their home at some point in the last year because of concerns about rising energy costs, while 87% believed that the government’s policies are “actively” going to increase the number of people in Ireland who cannot afford to heat their homes.
Those numbers will most likely be exacerbated by the continued rise in fuel and energy costs since January.
The Green Party’s insistence that the planned increase in the Carbon Tax next month is a ‘key part of the Coalition agreement’ for the government is meeting with resistance from Fine Gael’s backbench as constituents increasingly tell TDs that they cannot afford to heat homes or provide necessities.
Peadar Tóibín of Aontú said that the plan to collect money with one hand through Carbon Taxes and then give some back through allowances made no sense.
A Green Party Minister has insisted that the planned increase in the Carbon Tax next month is a key part of the Coalition agreement. The Government is under pressure to delay the tax increase with one Fine Gael TD saying people will be unable to afford it. pic.twitter.com/mlBYouxMoY
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) April 3, 2022