Mr. Gary Tobin:

The proposal for how the emissions trading scheme, ETS, will work is that 30% of the moneys which member states generate from the auction of what are known as ETS allowances will be paid into the EU budget. As we already have a carbon tax in Ireland, in a sense we are already collecting some of this money. We estimate that if we were to be paying this, or some of it, into the EU budget, Ireland’s share would possibly be just under €500 million per annum in current prices.