Next month's Budget must include measures to save Ireland from multi-million euro penalties for global warming, Labour said today.
The party's pre-Budget seminar heard that cost effective steps should be taken to help address the nation's Kyoto commitments on climate change.
Proposals include carbon-proofing major industrial projects and encouraging the use of bio-fuels in transport. "Ireland could be hit by hundreds of millions of euro in penalties per annum for failing to reach our Kyoto targets," said Labour finance spokeswoman Joan Burton, at the seminar in Dublin's Mansion House.
The TD demanded that public infrastructure projects be examined for energy, efficiency and environmental impact as well as carbon effects. Labour also called on Finance Minister to create greater equity within the tax system in his Budget.
Ms Burton claimed that 186 people with incomes of over 100,000 euro a year, including four people with incomes of over one million euro, paid absolutely no tax in 2003.
A further 873 with incomes of over 100,000 euro paid a tax rate of less than 5 per cent and 32 people with an income of over one million euro also paid less than 5 per cent in the same year. "These figures show that tax avoidance through the plethora of schemes for property investment and generous tax write-offs for pension funds are alive and well, and particularly benefiting the very well-off," Ms Burton remarked.