Ciarán Cuffe, Green Party MEP for Dublin, has called on the Irish government to show real leadership on climate change and join the European Union Member States calling for fair taxation for aviation.

Nine EU member states (the Netherlands, Sweden, France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Denmark and Bulgaria) have called on the European Commission to tackle the aviation sector's unfair economic advantage over all other modes of transport. Despite the sector's enormous carbon emissions, aviation is exempted from excise duties, there no VAT is levied on international flights, and there is no coordinated ticket tax at EU level.

Ciarán Cuffe said: ‘’The measures called for by these countries are crucial to ensuring we tackle aviation’s growing carbon emissions and to guarantee fair competition with more sustainable modes of transport like rail. While this move is welcome, we must also tax jet fuel, which is similarly exempted from taxation. The Irish government should sign this joint statement as a first step.

How is it fair that companies like Ryanair and Aer Lingus are essentially given subsidies by governments to pollute, while our public transport system suffers from unfair competition and a lack of investment? Why are we building airport runways rather than investing in better public transport?’’

Once again we see the utter hypocrisy of the Irish government on climate change. As the Taoiseach dangerously lists the supposed benefits of climate change, the Irish government is unsurprisingly absent from the list of Member States calling for action on aviation.''

Link to press release by Dutch government on the joint statement: https://www.government.nl/latest/news/2019/11/07/aviation-tax-press-release

For further information please contact Niamh Allen on 087 9893749