Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)

The reason the Minister came up with this idea was to mask the fact that there was nothing green in the budget. It was predicted that the introduction of a similar measure in Australia, which has a population of 21 million, would result in a saving of 800,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions, yet the Minister calculates that the introduction of this measure here with our population of 4 million would result in a saving of 700,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions. Therefore, his calculations could not possibly be right.

Australia, Britain and other countries are consulting on and phasing in the introduction of this type of ban because there are many issues to be considered, including savings in emissions. The Minister cannot possibly meet the deadline of January 2009 set for the introduction of this measure because Europe has a proposal on the table to phase in the ban on the use of incandescent lightbulbs. The Minister has to keep to its timetable.

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