Ivan Yates
Ceist:76 Mr. Yates asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs his role to date in relation to the retention of duty free within the EU; and if this was considered at a recent meeting of the General Affairs Council. [27756/98]
Written Answers. - Duty Free Sales.
As the issue of duty free sales is a taxation matter, it falls, in the first instance, within the remit of the ECOFIN Council and therefore of my colleague, the Minister for Finance. The Government has supported a re-examination of the duty free issue in the ECOFIN Council and in other fora as appropriate.
When the matter arose at a discussion over lunch at the General Affairs Council on 7 December Ireland was again one of the member states to press for the issue to be re-examined.
I am pleased to report that, at its meeting in Vienna on 11 and 12 December, the European Council considered the 1991 decision to abolish duty free and asked the Commission and the ECOFIN Council to examine by March 1999 the problems which could arise with regard to employment and to address, on the basis of proposals from the Commission, possible means of tackling these problems, including the possibilty of a limited extension of transitional arrangements.