A Government plan to ban traditional lightbulbs at the start of next year is unlikely to go ahead following intervention from the European Commission.
Minister for the Environment John Gormley's officials are due to meet commission officials this month over the Minister's plan to "ban the bulb" as a means of promoting greater use of low-energy CFL lightbulbs.
The commission is developing its own plans to phase out traditional lightbulbs, but these are unlikely to be in place in time for Mr Gormley's proposed ban.
A commission spokesman confirmed yesterday that Mr Gormley's plans were likely to run into problems because they involved banning the sale of a product that is legally for sale in other member states.
A ban would be impossible until agreed EU-wide as there would be nothing to stop a retailer sourcing bulbs in another state.
Labour Senator Joanna Tuffy said correspondence she had received from the EU cast "a huge doubt" on the viability of Mr Gormley's "half-baked proposal".
"It is now apparent that Minister Gormley simply did not do his homework on this. I am tempted to suggest that he was fully aware that the EU could take these steps but so desperate was he to grab the headlines with his damp-squib 'carbon budget' that he simply pressed ahead with the announcement of his poorly thought through plans."
However, Green TD Paul Gogarty defended his party colleague last night, claiming special EU derogations existed for environmental measures such as that proposed by Mr Gormley.