Finance Minister Brian Cowen yesterday ruled out taxing airline tickets to fund development aid to Africa.
EU finance ministers discussed the issue at a meeting in Brussels, the first under the presidency of British chancellor of the exchequer Gordon Brown.
Debt relief and how to raise aid to Africa to fight disease are the central aims of London's chairmanship of the EU and group of eight rich nations (G8).
"There's no consensus for a mandatory tax," said Mr Cowen. "If it's a voluntary matter left up to member states, that's fine." Mr Cowen said Ireland's development assistance was twice the average of G8 countries so there was no need for extra taxes when Dublin makes private aid donations tax deductible.
French President Jacques Chirac first floated the idea of an air ticket tax to aid Africa earlier this year.
France, Germany, Luxembourg and Britain are some of the EU states who support the scheme.
Tourist destinations Greece and Italy are opposed while the Netherlands and Austria are also critical.
EU finance ministers will discuss the subject at an informal meeting in September.
The European Commission is also preparing a report.
No definitive figure for the tax has been set but the levy could range from €1-€10 per flight.
Mr Brown, whose country has stayed out of the euro, chaired his first meeting of ministers since Britain took over as president on July 1st of the 25-nation EU, and he said shaking up the EU economy was central to his plans for the months ahead.
"All ministers recognise the need for economic reform," he told a news conference. "This will be at the heart of the UK presidency."
Millions of European and US jobs could be lost to emerging star economies of Asia in the decades ahead and the EU needs to adapt to meet the challenge, Mr Brown said.
Ahead of yesterday's talks, ministers from the 12 euro zone countries met late on Monday to discuss deficits and growth prospects and cut their forecast for 2005 economic growth to 1.3 per cent from 1.6 per cent due mainly to a surge in world oil prices.
At the start of 2005, the euro zone was counting on growth of 2 per cent, the same as in 2004, but less than half of the rate of expansion of the world economy.
The European Central Bank has been resisting pressure to cut interest rates to shore up economic activity and it won backing for doing so by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which months earlier was recommending cuts.
