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

The EIB last year lent €3.5 billion to the UK. It has lent €30 billion to the UK in the past five years, I think, or seven years - I cannot recall exactly - but it will not be able to do so next year. It is crying out for people to lend money to. The UK is doing very well. We, on the other hand, are one of only four countries which will not meet our renewable energy targets. We are one of only two countries that will not meet our emissions reduction targets. We are not drawing down any public funding from Europe, which is available in massive amounts. Representatives of the private finance industry here went to a sustainable nation conference a few months ago. They said with one voice that we are doing nothing. It is dead. We have no plans for offshore wind, we have nothing happening in solar energy and we are doing nothing on biomass heating. Our electric vehicle, EV, roll-out is dead, flat, not working. We have no smart metering and we have not introduced a large scale retrofit programme, which we need to do if we are to meet any of our targets. What will change?