Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE) has sent Minister for the Environment Dick Roche an unusual Christmas present - a certificate making him the owner of one tonne of "carbon credits".
FIE has been buying carbon emissions trading credits from the European Carbon Trading Exchange and is offering to "retire" them as Christmas gifts, at €25 per tonne.
It buys the certified emissions reductions credit at €22 per tonne and retires them, sending a full colour certificate recording the purchase on the recipient's behalf.
"This isn't about making money, it's about making a point," spokesman Tony Lowes said. "Pollution is costing us money because the Government has to buy these credits instead of reducing emissions."
The recent Budget allocated an initial €20 million for buying carbon credits to compensate for Ireland exceeding its greenhouse gas limits under the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change.
"A carbon tax would have reduced Ireland's Kyoto overshoot and would have raised money from the polluters to buy the remaining necessary credits to meet targets," Mr Lowes said.
"As it stands, the burden will be borne by the public, rather than by major installations such as power stations and cement plants. These polluters are not paying," he complained.
Asked about FIE's Christmas present to the Minister, Mr Lowes said: "Since he's making us pay, we thought we'd give him one to concentrate his mind on what it's all about."
He instanced cement, which produces one tonne of carbon dioxide for every tonne produced.
"If I buy a bag of cement, I should have to pay extra for it, and not the body of taxpayers."
Carbon credits can be purchased from the FIE website www.friendsoftheirishenvironment.net/carbon.html