Gormley scraps plans for lightbulb ban
Monday, 26 January 2009 17:12Environment Minister John Gormley has abandoned plans for a national ban on incandescent light bulbs in favour of a Europe-wide approach.
In a statement this afternoon, Mr Gormley said proposed EU regulations would eliminate the need for Ireland to introduce its own minimum standards and he would be writing to all Irish MEPs urging them to support the Commission's plan.
If adopted, he said, the phasing out would commence a couple of months later than his own proposal, but the scope of the EU plan was broader than had been expected.
It proposes to phase out incandescent bulbs starting in September next and ending in 2012. The plan has to go before the European Parliament before any adoption by the EU Commission.
Labour's spokeswoman Joanna Tuffy claimed that Mr Gormley was simply accepting the reality that his own scheme could well have fallen foul of EU regulations if he had persisted in going it alone.
She said in a statement that it would have been unwise to ban lightbulbs that could have been purchased in Northern Ireland and it made much more sense for the minister to proceed at the same pace as the rest of Europe.