Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan has rejected claims by Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary that environmental levies are unfairly targeting airlines.
The Green Party leader appeared at the Transport Committee a week after the budget airline boss attacked taxes on fossil fuels across the EU.
Minister Ryan restated his support for higher levies and denied that Ireland was being "punitively taxed".
"I stand by my comments at the COP27," Mr Ryan said, "which were backed up and supported by the vice-president of the European Commission."
He was responding to questions from Fianna Fáil TD Cathal Crowe at the Joint Committee on Transport and Communications.
"Irish passengers are paying the highest environmental taxes of any passenger group in Europe," Mr O'Leary told the committee last week.
While he supported "fair and balanced" charges, as "aviation does have a damaging impact", the Ryanair CEO called for an end to "indefensible" exemptions.
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Today, Mr Crowe said that Minister Ryan's push for "increased levies" would "instill some fear in those who work and depend on aviation".
"I find that hard to reconcile with aviation growth," he said, "and particularly as an island nation."
"Ireland is in need of a taxation carve-out," he insisted, "because at the moment, the long haul-flights and connecting flights are exempt from environmental taxes."
"But point-to-point short haul - which is exactly what we have coming out of Ireland - that is being punitively taxed," Mr Crowe said, echoing Mr O'Leary's concerns.
"We agreed in unison that this is the right approach," Minister Ryan insisted, pointing to a unified European approach.
"Sectors like aviation, shipping and the fossil fuels industry would need to make a contribution to some of the [climate damage] funds," he said.
It was, he claimed, "absolutely the right thing to propose. Europe as a whole proposed it."
The minister said that the proposed levy of €1 a ticket would lead to €4.5bn per annum being pumped into a global Climate Damage Fund and would do so without damaging Ireland's connectivity.
"I expect it will be brought up in the ongoing negotiations, I hope it will be introduced," he said.
