Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

I am sorry I was not present for the earlier contributions, but I have a note of points made by Senators and will respond to them.

First, it is not possible to tax retrospectively for the periods before this legislation comes into effect. A development last year was the rebate of more than €300 million provided from the ESB for all consumers on a market-neutral basis which largely addressed the carbon windfall from that period. Although we did not have this mechanism we used alternative ones to try to help bring down prices and keep Ireland competitive.

The value of the levy in any given year will depend on the market price of carbon. In recent years this has varied from €12 to just under €30 and currently costs just under €15 a tonne. On that basis, there will be a yield of approximately €75 million. Those receipts will be committed not to anything in the legislation but, through the Exchequer process, to recycling to reduce or prevent the rise of the cost of electricity to large energy users. That was done tactically and deliberately on the basis of protecting the small number of companies for which electricity provides a significant component of their costs. It is as much a jobs initiative as anything else.

We will have the opportunity on Committee Stage which I believe will take place next week to go into some of the technical details of the Bill. This is a technical area and looking into electricity markets can be complex. The approach taken by the Government is the right one, although I would say this. I very much appreciate the general support from Senators and look forward to the passing of this Bill in order that we can benefit Irish consumers in the electricity market. I thank the Cathaoirleach.