Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)

This question has been on the Order Paper for a long time. I suspect we are grateful to Dr. Paisley for distracting the Taoiseach so we actually reached it.

A serious issue is involved, which I am not entirely sure the Minister of State has correctly addressed. First and foremost, statistics from the Irish economy are an integral part of the statistics for the European Union and the methodology applied presumably must comply with EUROSTAT standards. It is not a question of any Government or Administration arbitrarily selecting the commodities, or of the CSO acting independently — it must act in compliance with agreed European standards and, if there is a change, it is one that is accommodated within the EUROSTAT principle.

Do I take it from the Minister of State's reply that the Government is trying to enable the Minister for Finance to put a punitive increase on the cost of tobacco in order to reduce consumption but at the same time to ensure that such an increase in the price of tobacco would not be factored into the calculation of inflation for the purposes of wage negotiation? Can the Government do this?

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