{"id":48019,"date":"2026-09-16T00:22:44","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T04:22:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2026\/09\/16\/soc-dems-warn-against-postponement-of-rise-in-carbon-tax\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T00:22:44","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T04:22:44","slug":"soc-dems-warn-against-postponement-of-rise-in-carbon-tax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2026\/09\/16\/soc-dems-warn-against-postponement-of-rise-in-carbon-tax\/","title":{"rendered":"Soc Dems warn against postponement of rise in carbon tax"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"maincontent\" role=\"main\">\n<div id=\"main\" itemscope itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Article\">\n<header>      <\/header>\n<div>\n<p><span>                                                   Updated \/ Tuesday, 15 Sep 2026                     12:26                               \t\t<\/span>     <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<figure id=\"main-article-image\">\n<div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" itemprop=\"image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rte.ie\/images\/00250382-800.jpg\" alt=\"Social Democrats Jenifer Whitmore speaks to the media at her party think-in\">                                                                                    <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div><figcaption data-epic-field=\"thumbnail_caption\">                     Jennifer Whitmore said that the programmes funded by the carbon tax were really important schemes (Pic: Collins)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<section itemprop=\"articleBody\" data-epic-field=\"content\">\n<p>The Social Democrats have warned against a further postponement of the carbon tax increase scheduled for next month.<\/p>\n<p>Deputy Jennifer Whitmore said the programmes funded by the tax were really important schemes, including retrofitting projects and the acre scheme.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If you&#8217;re paying a tax that is ringfenced, I think it&#8217;s easier for people to understand that that money is being used for good. And from an environmental perspective, it&#8217;s really important that we continue to have this in place,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There are other mechanisms to cut the costs for individuals, so as long as we ensure that we are assisting those individuals that are really struggling, whether it&#8217;s with their fuel costs or with their energy costs, I think there&#8217;s a way of doing that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ms Whitmore made the comments at the party&#8217;s pre-D\u00e1il think-in where the Social Democrats also proposed a \u20ac450 million windfall tax on energy companies to be largely used to fund a \u20ac400 energy credits for low and middle-income households.<\/p>\n<p>Deputy leader Cian O&#8217;Callaghan said it was not right that any energy company would make &#8220;super additional&#8221; profits from the current energy crisis while households struggle to pay bills.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on RT\u00c9&#8217;s Morning Ireland, Mr O&#8217;Callaghan said the tax would help fund a solar for plan that would help households.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There is no rationale for energy companies to pocket additional profits above what they would usually make in a usual year. We are saying that should be taxed and those funds used to pay for our solar for all plan.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Social Democrats Cian O'Callaghan speaks to the media at the party think-in\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rte.ie\/images\/00250384-614.jpg?ratio=1.78\"><figcaption>Cian O&#8217;Callaghan said it was not right that any energy company would make profits from the energy crisis (Pic Collins)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A government spokesperson has pointed out that T\u00e1naiste and Minister for Finance Simon Harris has written to European finance minsters to confirm that the issue would be discussed at the Ecofin meeting in Dublin this weekend.<\/p>\n<p>He also called for temporary reductions in excise to be extended until May and then reviewed.<\/p>\n<p>Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns, who is pregnant with her second child, is not attending the think-in as she has been required to stay in Cork on medical advice.<\/p>\n<p>She will return to the D\u00e1il in the coming weeks according to Mr O&#8217;Callaghan.<\/p>\n<p>Another absentee was Dublin Bay South TD Eoin Hayes and the party faced repeated questions about his whereabouts.<\/p>\n<p>Mr O&#8217;Callaghan denied that the party was hiding Mr Hayes from the media in the face of repeated controversies and insisted he would attend the event later in the day.<\/p>\n<p>A story in the Ditch website reported that Mr Hayes had boasted about his role in reducing headcount at Irish tech company Wayflyer.<\/p>\n<p>Mr O&#8217;Callaghan said that Mr Hayes had explained that he was not responsible for decisionmaking at the firm and was instead involved in financial modelling.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<div>\n<h4>More stories on<\/h4>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>                             <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rte.ie\/images\/000fb499-300.jpg\" alt=\"Sandra Hurley Political Reporter\" title=\"Sandra Hurley\">                                              <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Updated \/ Tuesday, 15 Sep 2026 12:26 Jennifer Whitmore said that the programmes funded by the carbon tax were really important schemes (Pic: Collins) The Social Democrats have warned against a further postponement of the carbon tax increase scheduled for next month. Deputy Jennifer Whitmore said the programmes funded by the tax were really important [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48020,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-news","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}