Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I do not have much to add except to say that I agree with the principle enunciated by the Deputy. However, we have very defined targets from a European process. I ask the Deputy to trust me on this issue. The European Union will push us to ensure we meet our targets. We are not far off achieving those targets. They are not that far away. I will be launching a consultation process on the mitigation plans in the near future in which everyone will be able to play their part. We will get down to the level of detail required. Those are the areas which excite me.

In my wider role in the Department I derive much energy and enthusiasm from the volume of new technologies which come from every corner of the country to deal with this issue. I see more technologies every week. When we get into the mitigation plans and the encouragement of the technologies and, dare I say, from an economic point of view as regards creating value and wealth, the export of those technologies to China, which I visited a couple of months ago, and other countries which need them, at least they can help improve the concept in our own country. That is the nitty gritty I want to get down to. However, we need to pass the Bill. Whatever one says about this Government, Ireland is one of the first countries to pass a Bill such as this, though it may not meet everyone's desires, targets or terminology. To be honest, there is probably no right or wrong answer to some of the questions on levels and variants but we need a starting point. The starting point is that we must pass this legislation. We have targets based on the European Union. They are difficult targets. As a country, given our profile and our background they are very difficult targets.

Given our rural and agricultural profile, there would be significant challenges. From the baseline of where we have come from an economic perspective, it would bring even further challenges. Before this job, I worked with the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. The capacity to make changes in transport, which is a very capital-intensive area, was very limited. I did as much as I could with sustainable transport, for example, with bikes, the Leap card and public transport changes. Having said that, it would not be fair to say we do not have targets. We are in a system, through the European Union, and that is the system we must stick to. We will be doing very well to meet them.