This Thursday’s carbon tax increase should be seen for what it is – another tax on the hard-working families of Ireland, says Independent Senator and European Election candidate, Ronan Mullen.

“This is not just a tax on families but a tax on poorer, more vulnerable, people. It is the worst example yet of the regressive taxes being introduced by this Government. It takes absolutely no account of a person’s ability to pay.”

“On May 1, the so-called carbon tax will add €1.20 to the price of a bag of coal and 24 cents to the price of a bale of briquettes. This tax was originally spun as a source of ring-fenced funding for insulation programmes but this fiction has been abandoned by the Government.”

“I would remind the Labour Party of the slogan they used before the last General Election – ‘Every little hurts’. Unfortunately it seems that to the Labour party it was just that – a slogan.”

“Whoever leads the Labour Party should grasp that each new tax the Government now imposes causes severe pain to already hard-pressed people.”

“It does matter and it does hurt,” he concluded.

Senator Ronan Mullen with Joan Gillespie from Newtowncunningham discussing the Carbon Tax due to be introduced this week which will increase the price of household fuels. Pictured outside Kernan’s Eurospar, Newtowncunningham