Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

The application is with DG Competition of the European Commission for 18 months or longer and is in the final stages so I do not see how I can pull back. Certainly, I am more than willing to go into committee with Deputy Ó Cuív and other members to tease through this issue because there are questions that need to be examined with regard to this system. I am assured there is no basis for the claim that REFIT is a licence to print money. As I said to Deputy Thomas Pringle what is involved here is essentially a subsidy, whether it comes from the consumer or the Exchequer, and for that reason it must be measured very carefully. The whole idea is to bring more competition into the market to make us less reliant on fossil fuels and to use a natural resource, of which we have a bountiful supply, but I accept there has to be a balance.

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