Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

I am not aware of any move to give them the right to vote in general elections. That issue would have to be taken up with the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. It would also have to be dealt with on a European-wide basis because not every country has the same rules across borders.

The Government is strongly considering a move to deal in some way with the incandescent light bulbs. That is being actively considered in the context of the soon-to-be-released climate change strategy which will be an ambitious document. I have been involved in some of the discussions at Cabinet level. In the context of our discussions at the European Council meeting, in recent years Ireland may have been at the rear of the exhortation in achieving targets but this time we were the vanguard in putting in place very ambitious targets and trying to get the EU to be the world leader in regard to our commitments to deal with the climate change issue.

On the question of the implementation of targets, they are agreed at international level and are subject to binding requirements under international law. There has been some criticism from the far side of the Chamber in regard to our Kyoto commitments but we are on course to meet those commitments.

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