In theory “the polluter pays principle” seems to make sense, but judging by the items covered by the eco-tax bill currently being debated in Parliament one can easily tell that only a few of them impact negatively on the environment.

To my mind this eco-tax is nothing but tax by stealth. Something not even a British Chancellor of the Exchequer at his most devious would have ever dreamt of!

Green taxes are considered by experts to make sense not only when they actually encourage environmentally sustainable development but also when they happen to be conducive to better economic performance, more jobs and greater economic justice within and between nations.

Hardly any of the proposed taxed items would qualify if judged by this yardstick.

Were a radical green approach to taxation to reduce bureaucracy and help save the environment adopted, it would have made sense.

But what we are being lumped with is nothing but a series of regressive taxes that will hit the poorer and less well-off people relatively harder than the richer.

I do not think that fridges, washing machines, batteries and car tyres belong exclusively to the domain of the well-off!

If the government wants to address environmental and health hazards it would have done much better had it clamped down on certain abusive uses of fertilisers and pesticides, and soil destroying mechanisms and methods.

In its efforts to introduce European Union-wide eco-taxes, the Commission has been lobbying for a double dividend – that of stimulating innovation and improving economic competitiveness. Which does not seem to be the case locally.

As in the case of the so-called pension and health reform, the government conveniently postponed this legislation to the post local councils and European Parliamentary elections period.

The government should be reminded that a key component of any form of environmental taxation should be fiscal neutrality so the overall burden is not increased.

When green taxes are introduced as mere revenue raisers they cannot but be regarded as unjust while threatening the credibility of the concept of the eco-taxes involved

The Irish continue to show the way

Rather than resting on their laurels after a decade of sustained economic growth, and in spite of boasting higher numbers in employment than at any time since the birth of the State of the Republic of Ireland, the Irish have just embarked on a new enterprise strategy to refocus their efforts to increase economic activity in the private sector by way of a new package of incentives and efforts geared at helping them meet the shift towards services as a major driver of gross domestic product growth as well as the increasing role of knowledge as a driver of economic development and an influencer of new products.

Although aware that calls for a new and different enterprise strategy may appear alarmist, the Irish have been wise enough to realise that there are significant areas of opportunity for them to exploit their natural advantages and to develop new areas of competence in pursuit of sustainable enterprises.

At the same time they are not departing from the maxim that high value-adding manufacturing will remain a fundamental component of their enterprise environment.

They have made it clear that they will only succeed by focusing on and reinforcing niche areas of activity.

While until now their principal enterprise strengths have been in the operational aspects of manufacturing and services, rather than in markets and in product development, they will now be following a new strategic direction geared at realising their inherent and possibly as yet untapped potential.

This they intend to do by developing expertise in international markets to promote sales growth, as well as building technological and applied research and development capability, to support the development of high-value added products and services.

They will be doing so because the current profile of enterprise expertise in Ireland shows that they have significant expertise in manufacturing/ operations and limited capability in R&D and sales and marketing.

When Malta Enterprise was being set up during a presentation we were told that the local authorities were looking at the Irish model.

Let us sincerely hope that they will continue to do so now in the light of this new turn of events in the Republic of Ireland.

We need to identify and exploit those main sources of competitive edge and advantage which taken together can enable enterprise in Malta to achieve such a vision. Apart from also having a Cabinet enterprise review process the Irish also intend to support these Cabinet meetings by an Expert Group on Enterprise which meets at least quarterly and consists of key departmental heads and senior figures from the enterprise sector.

The last thing we should try to do is to try to reinvent the wheel!

Email: [email protected]

Leo Brincat is the main Opposition spokesman for Foreign Affairs and IT.