Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

Is the Minister aware of the comments of his colleague the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Roche, that the Government was going to impose an additional tax on traditional light bulbs? Is the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government correct in saying that? What details of this additional tax has he worked out with the Minister for Finance and when is the proposed tax to be implemented? Is the Minister aware that currently the cost differential between energy efficient light bulbs and the traditional incandescent light bulb is sometimes up to a factor of ten? What plans does the Minister for Finance have to tax standard light bulbs?

What does the Government propose to do for people, such as pensioners, for whom the energy saving light bulb is extremely expensive compared with the traditional bulb? Is the Minister going to push the price of the traditional light bulb up to €6 or €12, the price of the energy saving light bulb in most shops?

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