THE European Parliament has agreed a series of exemptions on mineral oils worth an estimated £7 million a year to the giant Aughinish Alumina plant in Foynes, Co Limerick, writes Paul Cullen, from Strasbourg.

Under the regulation agreed by the parliament yesterday, Aughinish will continue to be exempted from paying excise on the heavy fuel oil it imports. The situation will be reviewed in two years.

The continuation of the exemption was recommended in a report tabled by the Independent Munster MEP, Mr Pat Cox, yesterday. He argued that the exemption should continue until the EU completed an overall review of how energy products are taxed.

Aughinish is the largest single industrial user of electricity in the State. The massive amounts of power needed for smelting aluminium is provided by a generation station which runs on imported fuel oil.

When the plant was set up in 1974, the company successfully negotiated the exemption of fuel oil from excise duty. However, with the advent of the Single European market, Aughinish was told this agreement would have to be renegotiated.