Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Under the current legislative framework there is effectively no scope for Ireland to unilaterally tax commercial aviation fuel used by private jets. I have given the Senator the background and once there is agreement with another countries, it could be done. Senator Boylan mentioned that France is considering the introduction of this as well as a debate at the Transport Council in Prague on 20 to 21 October. We have not seen any specific details but closer to the time, the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, will certainly respond to that, if that is on the agenda that particular day.

The House may be aware, however, that a proposal to revise the energy tax directive is currently being negotiated at EU level and Ireland is actively engaged in these discussions. One area under consideration during these negotiations is the taxation of fuel used in commercial aviation which would, by definition, include private jets. There is still a long way to go with this proposal. However, as one of its essential purposes is to support faster uptake of cleaner fuel by taxing fuels on the basis of energy content, the environmental performance, rather than by volume, it is likely that aviation fuels, including those used by private jets, will fall within the scope of those discussions.