Forming the next Irish Government - policies and personalities

The flights cuts made in Spain, due to higher fees from the Spanish Government? Those flight cuts?

Are you proposing so, that the government follow suit and raise fees for air travel, in the hope that there will be less demand for flights?
Are SF proposing this?

Whether it's FF FG or SF etc, the focus on climate change here should be educating citizens and awareness campaigning while working in the EU to target real polluters like the aviation business and industrial sectors.
Once that is done penalise/tax the ordinary citizen if they are still contributing to CC.
At the moment it is ineffectually arse about face. Maybe with the Greens gone that reverse can happen.

People seem to think that we can address climate change only through a carrot and wishful thinking approach - that is the basis of the Sinn Fein policy, for example. However, that won't help, we need a carrot and stick approach, that will mean further carbon tax increases, more taxes on aviation and on internal combustion engines etc.

I'm not arguing your point blanch. I'm asking what alternatives to that have the past govt including the Greens provided?

Hit on what SF won't do all you like, tell us what has been done to stop it apart from taxes and price gouging for the alternatives?

The big increases we had in gas and electricity were caused by international factors.

If only we weren't so dependent on imported fossil fuels…

As I stated above, the carbon taxes are being used for environmental initiatives like retrofitting. Carbon tax is small compared to the VAT you pay on electricity and gas. It's positively tiny compared to the excise and VAT you pay on petrol and diesel. The whinging about it is out of all proportion, and pointless anyway. Carbon tax is not going away, and shouldn't.

And figures from the World Bank and the European Commission estimate that Ireland is responsible for around 0.1% of global emissions.

So even if you culled every cow and locked up every farmer you'd make a miniscule change to climate change.

I don't think that anybody disagrees that increased taxation changes behaviour but to change behaviour you need to have an alternative. In the case of the smoking taxes the alternative to filling your lungs with smoke is to fill it with fresh air

Like it or not there is no alternative in much of the country to driving or oil boilers

But that's it in a nutshell. We are still dependent on fossil fuels for most of our electricity and heating. Even if you buy into the new heating systems the power is being generated by fossils, is that's not an instance of a type of hypocrisy being preached at us?

My question still stands, what has the past govt including the Greens achieved to improve that?

There are, if you are bothered to look
One can get a A2W HP (Grants are available), Gas boilers are cleaner than Oil boilers, etc..

As to transport, there is public transport options, the Greens did good work on that, but a lot left to do.
One can also get a PHEV or a BEV.

There are options, but many people are either too lazy or ignorant to think through them.

If you want to talk about 'real' polluters, should we target farmers? Is that you opinion?
Also, if we want to target aviation, should we copy Spain and increase fees on airlines so we reduce flights?
I think that is what you are saying, so correct me if I am wrong.

In a like for like situation?

Yes.

An VW ID3 is a few grand cheaper than a VW Golf to take one example.

A Tesla Model 3 is great value if you compare to similar Saloons.

You can get a Hyundai Inster for approx €19k and a Dacia Spring for approx €17k
A new Nissan Leaf for approx €22k-23k

EVs were expensive a few years ago,but now, that price differential is all but gone.

They never give specific financial estimates in a programme for government.

That will come in the various budgets.

If they're not going to put specifics into the programme for government, then they are certainly not going to tell some journalist on the side of the road.

There is an alternative - changing away from our unsustainable dispersed rural settlements - but that may require stronger measures.