Mr. David Hegarty:

We have not done a formal assessment of what the costs would be for the enterprise sector if there was an increase in the carbon tax or the PSO levy. Some research was published by the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, last week which argued that for the exports sector the effects of an increase in the carbon tax of €5 per tonne would be relatively small in terms of competitiveness. That is the ESRI's finding and I just wished to draw the committee's attention to it. There are limitations attached to the institute's methodology, however, and one cannot infer that a much bigger increase in the carbon tax would not necessarily have a stronger effect.