Trevor Sargent
Ceist:9 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Finance if, in light of an ESRI report indicating that the introduction of an energy tax such as that proposed by the European Commission could lead to an increase of 9,000 jobs in Ireland and the fact that such a tax is widely accepted to be an important element in the EC's strategy to meet its CO² stabilisation targets, he will give details of the evidence on which he based the Government's reported position, expressed at the meeting of the Council of Economic and Finance Ministers on 7 June 1993, to the effect that the proposed energy tax could inhibit industrial development in Ireland; whether this evidence is in the form of published or publicly available material; the way in which he considers that the provisions for partially exempting energy-intensive industries, contained within the Commission's proposal, fail to protect the interests of Irish industry as compared with industries in other EC countries; and if he will make a statement on the reason the Government is reportedly not supporting the Commission's proposal.