Between consumers and producers, Farmer Thomas Duffy believes “For us to get emissions down in the food sector, someone is going to have to bear the cost”.

The idea of adding a carbon fee to a restaurant bill has come about as one London restaurant has sparked outrage online by adding this extra charge to diner’s bills. Andrea Gilligan asked her listeners on Lunchtime Live what their thoughts were if this potential fee was put onto their bill. 

Simon O’ Connell of O’Connell’s Pier House Restaurant in Howth gave his opinions on the subject: “Generally I’m behind anything green, any green initiatives or anything that can help us reduce our carbon footprint” 

“But I think, particularly with pricing and restaurants and pubs these days - I suppose you’d call it a touchy subject”. 

“When things like this come on to your bill, there needs to be 100% transparency there - it looks just like an abysmal charge for a customer [...] and they might not see the benefit of it”. 

“So the question goes to the customer - where is this going, is it going into the owner’s pocket, or is it doing what it says on the tin?”

“Personally, I think it's up to the businesses to invest in themselves to reduce their carbon footprint - to show people what they’re doing”

“I think there’s plenty of ways that businesses can do it [help the environment] whether it be harvesting water, using sustainable energy, proper waste management - without adding an additional charge to the customer”. 

Patricia Coyne from Clare joined into the discussion on the show and shared her thoughts on the carbon-free fee :  “I think the term is ‘green-washing’, where you feel like you’re helping the environment but in fact you’re not really - you’re just getting the feel-good factor”. 

“At the end of the day, you’re not really helping if you’re still eating meat”. 

Jackie Conboy from Tipperary is against bringing in an initiative like this. 

“It's ridiculous, even for someone that might be running a restaurant [...], they’re finding it hard enough to keep their doors open without bringing up the costs again”. 

“There’s a lot of farmers that are trying to keep in business with what they’re doing, and all this rubbish of red tape too [...], they’re just taxing people out of the country”. 

Thomas Duffy, a Dairy Farmer in Cavan gave his thoughts from a produce perspective: 

“For us to get emissions down in the food sector, someone is going to have to bear the cost”. 

“While consumers do express that they want more environmentally-conscious produce, only about a third of people are willing to pay more for environmentally [friendly] stuff”. 

Written by Cara McHugh