Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

In respect of output figures, we have a million oil-fired central heating systems and we could get rid of the lot of them. We have only a thousand electric vehicles; that number needs to multiply by a factor of five or ten, which would give us benefits in terms of balancing supply, as would getting rid of the oil-fired central heating systems and replacing them with heat pumps. We need to tell the public about the radical nature of what we committed to in Paris. The figures for 2020 are in the ha'penny place compared with our Paris commitment. The Minister has only just arrived in his post and I am not making him responsible for that, but if we are serious about climate change this Department must multiply its scale, activity and ambition three- or fivefold and the Minister has to convince the rest of the Government to allow him do that. There will be health and other benefits.