{"id":639725,"date":"2026-09-29T17:06:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T17:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/639725\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T17:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T17:06:11","slug":"carbon-tax-changes-under-consideration-as-minister-defends-home-energy-grants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/639725\/","title":{"rendered":"Carbon tax changes under consideration as minister defends home energy grants"},"content":{"rendered":"

Energy minister Darragh O\u2019Brien has defended the benefits of the carbon tax as Budget discussions<\/a> intensify over possible changes to planned increases in the tax.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Brien said he \u201cdid not see any reduction of grants\u201d to scrap fossil fuel boilers or insulate homes \u2013 which, he stressed, are funded by the carbon tax.<\/p>\n

Speaking at an EU Presidency<\/a> meeting of energy ministers at Dublin Castle, he said any discussion about carbon tax<\/a> was an issue for himself and the finance minister, as well as Government colleagues.<\/p>\n

He said they will decide \u201cover the next few days\u201d what will happen in relation to carbon taxes and pointed out that he did not see any decision being made outside the Government.<\/p>\n

Budget 2027 will be announced on October 6.<\/p>\n

Last week, public expenditure minister Jack Chambers told RT\u00c9 News that a lower rate of carbon tax on home heating oil was being considered for the Budget.<\/p>\n

Home heating oil prices have increased sharply, from just short of \u20ac1,000 for 1,000 litres earlier this year to more than \u20ac1,600 now.<\/p>\n

Also last week, at an EU Presidency meeting of transport ministers, junior transport minister Se\u00e1n Canney hinted the Government could \u201cstall\u201d the forthcoming carbon tax rise.<\/p>\n

Carbon tax and home energy grants<\/p>\n

Asked by the media about carbon taxes, Mr O\u2019Brien said: \u201cWhat I would say about carbon tax is that it provides us with the funding to retrofit homes and retrofit businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have retrofitted over 287,000 homes. We\u2019ve seen a doubling in applications this year. They protect people from future price shocks, reduce energy bills and reduce emissions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Fianna F\u00e1il TD said any discussion around carbon tax was a matter between himself, the finance minister and Government colleagues.<\/p>\n

He said he didn\u2019t envisage any decision separate to that in Government, adding: \u201cWe will decide over the next few days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Brien said the carbon tax also funded the boiler scrappage scheme<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He said grants of up to \u20ac14,500 were being provided to people to upgrade from fossil fuel boilers to new technology, such as heat pumps.<\/p>\n

He said there was an over-reliance on home heating oil and fossil fuel boilers in rural areas.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Brien said he did not see \u201cany reduction in the acceleration of grants\u201d and that he wanted grants deployed faster.<\/p>\n

Energy costs and fuel prices<\/p>\n

Energy costs<\/a> \u2013 and the impact on EU citizens and businesses \u2013 and security of supply are set to dominate much of today\u2019s energy meeting.<\/p>\n

It is being attended by energy ministers from member states as well as European commissioner for energy and housing Dan Jorgensen and International Energy Agency executive director Fatih Birol.<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine<\/a> and the US conflict with Iran<\/a> have driven fossil fuel prices<\/a> this year.<\/p>\n

AA Ireland estimates that diesel prices at the pumps have risen from \u20ac1.72 a litre last February to \u20ac1.94 a litre in September, while petrol has increased from \u20ac1.73 to \u20ac1.87 a litre in the same period.<\/p>\n

The company said carbon tax accounted for 19c of diesel prices and 16c of petrol prices in September. Excise and VAT accounted for 55c of the price of diesel and 69c for petrol.<\/p>\n

After the fuel protests last April, the Government reduced excise duty on petrol and diesel, but the reductions were set to be unwound from the beginning of November.<\/p>\n

The cuts resulted in a 32c lowering of the price of a litre of diesel while 27c was shaved off the cost per litre of petrol.<\/p>\n

Ireland\u2019s transport sector \u2013 including the haulage industry \u2013 largely uses diesel and the Irish Road Hauliers Association (IRHA) has urged the Government to deliver a \u201cfirm extension\u201d to the existing excise reductions in Budget 2027.<\/p>\n

IRHA president Ger Hyland has said diesel prices have moved above \u20ac2.10 per litre at many forecourts and warned they were heading towards \u20ac2.20. He has argued that many haulage operations become unviable<\/a> once diesel moves beyond \u20ac1.90 per litre.<\/p>\n

Impact on households and transport<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Brien said the Government was focused on the impact on the transport sector and said haulage was \u201ca critical part\u201d of Ireland\u2019s supply chain.<\/p>\n

In relation to the cost of living, he said that the Government started direct payments of fuel allowances<\/a> on Monday to a quarter of households, which he said were \u201cdirect assistance\u201d to people\u2019s energy bills.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Brien said member states have \u201cflexibilities\u201d at their disposal to help alleviate the impact of the ongoing energy crisis by adjusting taxation.<\/p>\n

He said Irish and European citizens in general were aware that governments were not going to be able to protect their citizens \u201cfrom every single price increase\u201d.<\/p>\n

The minister also defended planned increases in public transport fares by the National Transport Authority, saying that there had been no such rises in \u201ceight years\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Dublin TD also said the extra money was going \u201cdirectly to new services\u201d, with 140 new services next year.<\/p>\n

He said commuters wanted both \u201creliability and affordability\u201d and that expansions were happening to the rail and DART network as well as Cork Commuter Rail and Cork Light Rail<\/a>.<\/p>\n

US diesel export ban<\/p>\n

In relation to reports of a US ban on the export of diesel, he said: \u201cTowards the end of last week I was in Washington DC where I had an opportunity to meet the US Chamber of Commerce and that was a matter we discussed. Obviously, any 90-day diesel export ban in the United States would have a significant impact on use here in the European Union.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But he said: \u201cFrom the information I was able to glean in DC, there doesn\u2019t seem to be a push to do that. We\u2019re not going to be complacent about it. I\u2019m very aware of the statements that have been made, but when you talk to others around the administration, it doesn\u2019t seem it would be something that would happen. I think there would be an impact on the United States themselves from diesel ban and impact on other fuels.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously that was a point of discussion last night here, with the European Commission and member states watching closely. We have to be prepared.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The US administration<\/a> has since denied that a 90-day diesel export ban is being prepared, while EU officials have said they remain in contact with Washington over the issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Energy minister Darragh O\u2019Brien has defended the benefits of the carbon tax as Budget discussions intensify over possible…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":639726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[175377,166626,2885,969,8858,246,74289,63615,61,11829,60,82,11258,2040],"class_list":["post-639725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-cork-luas","tag-budget-2027","tag-climate-change","tag-donald-trump","tag-energy-prices","tag-environment","tag-eu-presidency","tag-fuel-prices","tag-ie","tag-iran","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-social-welfare","tag-ukraine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=639725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}