Environmental Indicators Ireland 2016

• Environmental taxation revenue in Ireland increased by 20% between 2010 and 2015 from €4.1 billion to €4.9 billion. The most significant components of environmental taxes were energy and transport taxes which provided 61% and 38.1% respectively of the total tax revenue in 2015. A carbon tax was introduced in 2010 and it raised €418 million in 2015.

• Environmental taxes accounted for 8.2% of Ireland’s total tax revenues in 2014. This was the 10th highest percentage in the EU and above the EU average of 6.2%. Slovenia and Croatia were the EU member states with the highest environment share of tax revenue at 10.5% in 2014.

• Environmental transfers in Ireland increased from €720 million in 2004 to €1,384 million in 2008 before falling to €712 million in 2013. Capital transfers varied between 41% and 67% of total transfers over this period and accounted for 41% of the total environmental transfers in 2013.

• Wholesale prices for all fuel types increased substantially between 2005 and 2008 before falling back in 2009. Prices increased again in 2010, 2011 and 2012. Most fuel prices fell again in 2013 and 2014. Fuel oil prices increased more than any other fuel type over the 2005-2014 period with the index price rising from 100 to 170.

• The consumer price index for electricity increased by 45% between December 2006 and 2015, higher than any other energy product. Liquid fuels increased by 10% over the same period.

• In 2015, Ireland had the 16^th highest increase of 47% in consumer prices of energy products in the EU since 2005. This was 3.3% below the EU average.

• Both Domestic extraction and Domestic material consumption increased  from 1995 to 2007 in Ireland. Domestic extraction then fell by 52% and Domestic material consumption by 49% between 2007 and 2012 as the level of construction activity declined. Both increased again in 2013 by 9.4% and 10.3% respectively.

• Ireland’s resource productivity of €2.25 per kilogram of domestic material consumption in 2013 was the ninth highest in the EU, just above the EU average of €2.05 per kilogram. Luxembourg had the highest rate of resource productivity in the EU at €3.99 per kilogram in 2013.

• Ireland’s imports of fuels have increased from €851 million in 1995 to a peak of €7.2 billion in 2012 before falling to €5.1 billion in 2015. Exports of fuels increased from €153 million in 1995 to a peak of €1.6 billion in 2012 before falling to €773 million in 2015.

•  Imports of petroleum represented 73% of the total value of fuel imports in Ireland in 2015. This was equal to the EU average in 2015. 

• Sea fishery landings (live weight) at Irish ports fluctuated between 187,000 tonnes and 329,000 tonnes in the 2002-2014 period. 294,000 tonnes were landed in 2014.

• In 2014, Ireland’s sea fishery landings were the second highest per capita in the EU, with 63.9 kgs of fish landed per head of population. Denmark was the EU member states with the highest volume of fish landed in 2014 at 132.4 kgs per capita.

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