Joe O'Toole (Independent)

——with environmentally friendly bulbs that do less damage in terms of carbon emissions. I note that the Government issued a statement yesterday to announce its intention to increase the price of incandescent bulbs. That is a regressive and regrettable measure. What does the Government expect people to do? Will they sit and curse the darkness or buy another light bulb? It is simply another stealth tax on bulbs. The proper solution is a ban on incandescent bulbs and an immediate change to modern bulbs. One country, Australia, has already announced that it will ban all incandescent bulbs from 2009. There is no reason Ireland should not show leadership to the rest of the world by beginning to phase out old fashioned carbon emitting bulbs from 2008. Rather than curse the darkness, let us do something positive for the environment by taking that approach. I ask the Leader to bring my suggestion to the attention of the Minister.