The government is beginning to seriously irritate with its seemingly endless stream of new taxes which are supposed to save the environment.

This time it is the packaging tax, a levy which is supposed to put pressure on food retailers to put pressure on food manufacturers to reduce unnecessary packaging. The retailers, of course, are simply passing the tax on to shoppers who end up paying the bill.
We already pay an extra disposal charge every time we buy a piece of household machinery, which adds a whopping €1 to the price of a coffee percolator.
Then there are all the environmental taxes added on to our energy bills. And in July comes another nice new green tax on air travel – but not for transit passengers. Then there is the energy efficiency label which home owners are supposed to buy if they want to sell their house.
And, of course, the various green taxes added to or taken off the cost of a new car. And at some point, we will also have the new kilometre tax for motorists, which is supposed to make us drive less.
So many taxes, all costing goodness knows how much to administer and collect. It would be nice to know what, if any, benefit all these efforts are having on the environment – or is raising money for the treasury the main concern?