John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

I welcome the fact that the company carried out the poll. There was no need to consult other members of Government. I am the Minister responsible. We set out to have an awareness raising campaign and, in order to raise awareness one must measure how quickly and by how much one can raise awareness. A baseline study is needed to find out where we are now. The poll findings were interesting and show that, in principle, 81% of people favoured the introduction of a carbon levy. It was a comprehensive questionnaire, conducted face to face. I gave the details of the poll in my speech in the Mansion House at a seminar organised by the EPA, which was attended by approximately 900 people. They showed that once one got beyond the principle of a carbon levy, when one got into specific items such as increasing the price of petrol by eight cent or whatever, there were slight problems and there was less enthusiasm. When we went into it in further detail we discovered that 50% of people still wanted to see action on the carbon levy. However, one could say there is a 50% element of resistance there as well.

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