Mr. Niall Cody:

The main reason excise receipts over the past year are down is because of the reductions in excise on fuel that was brought in as a result of the fuel crisis. The Government cut excise duty on petrol and diesel by 20 cent or 25 cent. The other excise returns have stayed fairly stable. There has not been increases in excise duty on alcohol for a long time. It is fairly static. Excise duty on cigarettes goes up, generally by 50 cent every budget. It stays fairly stable because there is a problem; we see it in the context of cigarette smuggling. Obviously, the economics of it, as every time there is an increase in excise duty, it increases the margins that people can avail of.

The big change in excise over the last year and a half is the reduction in excise on petrol and diesel. That has been clawed back. Either 1 April or 1 May will be the date of the last restoration of the excise duty on diesel and petrol.