Budget 2018 fails to address measures on climate change, Sinn Fein has claimed.

Spokesperson on Climate Action and Environment Brian Stanley said said for 2020, it is estimated emissions are projected to be only 4% - 6% below 2005 levels and this compares to the EU target of 20%.

He said: "The consequence will be fines of hundreds of millions because of our spiralling emissions. We need to get real on climate change. We have to diversity renewable energy sources, which will create jobs across rural Ireland.

"The Budget allocated €10 million of a grant to home charge electric vehicles. But the public charge network is in a mess. The Regulator issued a paper on public charging and now 'expects ESB to arrange the sale of the assets'. Who is going to buy, finance, build, and maintain these in the future? There was no increase to the grant for electric vehicles. Sinn Féin proposed an additional €5m grant, on top of last year’s allocation of €3.3m.

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"We have had promises in the past of a waiver scheme for low income households for waste collection. This has failed to materialise. Sinn Féin propose giving €100 to help those medically incontinent and 100,000 of the lowest income households to ease the burden they will face from a largely unregulated industry.

"We have the third highest electricity prices in Europe, this need to be reduced. Instead, another hike in prices was announced over the weekend. Budget measures must be targeted and protect the 400,000 people who suffer from energy poverty.

"Sinn Féin proposed grants to replace single glaze windows, double the grant under the Better Energy Home scheme for renewable thermal heating."

(CD/MH)