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

We received a submission in respect of the public consultation paper from the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment on the national energy and climate action plan, the first draft of which has to be done by the end of the year. It is unintelligible on first reading and God help any member of the public who wants to make a submission. Surely, as part of this process, Mr. McCarthy will have to have an answer to my question. The figure needs to be a multiple of €3 billion because we are facing €600 million in fines in respect of the carbon gap we have. Professor John FitzGerald suggested €5 billion should be spent on the retrofitting of public buildings for social housing alone.

In the wake of the budget, our reputation as regards climate is in tatters and the Government's management of the matter is now open to question. Surely Mr. McCarthy will have to go to his colleagues before Christmas saying what our contribution would be to the €50 million, what the carbon saving would be and what the reduction in poverty would be if we did 100,000 houses. Why is he not doing that as part of this process?