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

The country is heading in a completely unsustainable direction. We will be the furthest from meeting our climate targets of any country in Europe. We are failing completely to develop renewable energy in a way that one would expect from a country that is rich in renewable energy sources. The cost of this to the State has been estimated at €5.5 billion by a member of the climate advisory committee. Everything that we are doing is moving us in the wrong direction.

Yesterday, when I asked the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, what he intended to do about this issue, he stated it had nothing to do with him and was a matter for the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. I agree that the issue is related to a large degree with expenditure. As I stated yesterday, the scale of change required is such that we need to do what T.K. Whitaker and Seán Lemass did when they brought us from a closed country to an open country. Ireland needs to move from the current completely unsustainable model towards a sustainable model. This will be important for the economy not only because it would allow us to avoid fines, but because the rest of the European Union, China and the United States are moving in the direction of sustainability. Our failure to do likewise will damage Ireland in that we will miss out on an economic opportunity and incur moral damage to our reputation. That is my assessment.

There are three specific areas where we need to respond. In his previous role as Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, the Minister reversed the terrible mistake made by the previous Administration of not proceeding with plans for a Dublin metro and DART interconnector. Given that Dublin is about to reach gridlock and 70% of tax revenue is generated within a 30 km radius of the General Post Office, how quickly could construction of a metro commence? Why are we waiting for the city to grind to a halt instead of proceeding with the project? Does the Minister intend to allocate money for construction of a metro in next year's budget?

I have just come from a demonstration to mark the terrible loss of the life of Donna Fox while cycling in Dublin city centre recently. Less than 1% of the transport budget is spent on walking and cycling, yet according to the Government plans, sustainable modes of transport will account for 10% of journeys by 2020. We are doing nothing to achieve this target. The Dodder greenway and Tolka Valley projects have been pulled, as have similar projects all over the country. Practically no money is being provided for measures to promote sustainability. Investors, including modern companies setting up in Ireland, want us to make these kinds of investments because they want their employees to be able to cycle to work. We are not doing anything to facilitate them. If we are to meet our target, 10% of the transport budget, as opposed to less than 1%, should be spent on sustainable roads. Given the Minister's knowledge of this area, what ambition does he have to make the necessary radical shift towards sustainability?

The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, has indicated that Ireland would need a threefold increase in the budget for retrofitting homes if we are to meet our targets and avoid paying large multi-billion euro fines. Despite this, the Department that manages the retrofit programme has fewer civil servants than the section that manages the sick pay bill for the public service. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has thousands of civil servants managing single payments and other process issues, yet we do not have public service resources available for understanding the growing digital and clean energy economies, both of which present critical technological and market challenges. Will the Minister engage in the radical transformation of the entire public service that is required to start taking seriously the environmental crisis we face?