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

I am sorry I was not present for all the presentations. One question that bothers me is how we see joined-up thinking on climate change and reaching our targets. I was alarmed when I read the EPA report, and I am sorry I missed that presentation. The report clearly showed that it is estimated we will be between 9% and 14% below targets by 2020. On the one hand, that is very serious. On the other hand, I attend sittings of the Dáil and committee meetings and hear, for example, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine boasting about looking forward to having the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, CETA, with Canada so we can beef up our beef trade with Canada. In addition, we are delighted that we have just done a big deal for live exports with Egypt. That does not make sense. On the one hand we are trying to reach a position where we can reduce our CO₂emissions but on the other we are flying ahead with policies that will clearly increase them. It is farcical to say that one should out-balance the other. If what the EPA says is true, and I do not doubt that it is, and given that many other organisations have said they are very concerned about the low level of the targets being reached not just here but globally, surely we should take a more proactive approach not just to finding ways to use our land better but also to keeping down our emissions in general. Every sector in our emissions production should be examined.

I was thinking about buying an electric, carbon-free car. Very few of them have been bought in this country. The target is over 5,000, but only approximately 560 were bought up to Christmas last year because they cost a hell of a lot of money. None of that makes sense. On the one hand we are saying, "here is this great report and this is how we do it", but it appears that we are swapping CO₂emissions in order to pretend that we are keeping up with our targets. The reality, and all of the reputable organisations continue to say as much, is that we are hurtling towards a very serious climate disaster if we do not take this seriously. I do not believe this Government takes it seriously. It is just shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanicwhen it does not challenge sectors such as transport and agribusiness in a serious way. Clearly, transport is a problem. Every morning cars are bumper to bumper for miles on the M50, with one person in each of the cars. There are many disused railway lines around that country that we must put back in use. There should be big investment in getting railway infrastructure in place and improving public transport to take cars off the roads. I do not see any of this happening. In fact, recent arguments with bus drivers and current arguments with Bus Éireann show that the investment in public transport is going down rather than up.

This is all mad. One side of the head is thinking a different way from the other side. There is no joined-up thinking in this Government. This committee, in some ways, should oversee joined-up thinking if we are to tackle the CO₂emissions problem and reach our targets. Otherwise, these are just lovely reports which are very interesting, but where will they go and where will it all end up? It is a very serious issue.