Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I will be very clear on the first question. The Deputy keeps saying the ongoing work on the CCCTB system has been shelved. It has not been shelved and technical work is ongoing. Will this turn into a legislative proposal to bring in tax harmonisation? I do not believe it will and I do not believe President Barroso wants to do that. If it was tried, the Deputy knows the issue could not be in safer hands because I have successfully opposed such measures on four occasions since 1992. Will efforts be made to re-introduce it under another guise? They probably will but we will oppose it again. I do not want the Deputy to worry about CCCTB over the Christmas holidays. He should not be concerned.

On the water framework directive, we have operated on the basis that we would not introduce new exemptions while we retained our exemption for domestic households. Our position in various discussions since 1999 has been to exempt residential users and charge all other users. The Deputy will be aware that the European Union takes the view that everybody should pay for quality water. The Government is investing more than €1 billion per annum in improving water quality and supply. An enormous amount of resources have and will be put into this area in the previous development plan and the current plan, which covers a period of seven or eight years.

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