Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I want to link something we already discussed to this section. When the Minister was effectively arguing to privatise the national broadband plan, he stated that he could not justify spending taxpayers' money on nationalising the broadband plan when there were more important things, such as climate change, to be dealt with. Given that we are discussing the Estimates, I ask the Minister to outline how much he is saving from not nationalising the broadband plan and how much he is putting into climate change. According to the briefing, which I read, there is an underspend in subhead C4 where only 33% has been spent on sustainable energy programmes. That does not look like a serious attempt by Government to deal with climate change.

Is the Minister concerned about the impact of a third runway in Dublin Airport on our CO2 emissions? Clearly aviation fuel is one of the more serious offenders in this area and the proposal of a third runway could have a major impact on it.

I ask the Chair a question while I have the floor because I have to leave. If one wants to ask a question on the work programme, should that happen after this section?