Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to make a general point before asking one last question. My general point is about the comments made in my absence. The point was made that much of this would come from private sector investment. That is fine and it will involve individual loans and so on. However, there is an absence of detail. The document before me includes no costings. We know about the concept of the new green deal where the State views it as an emergency and there is much talk about what will happen if we miss our 2020 targets. We know that at current levels the cost will be €1.7 billion if we miss our 2030 targets. We also know that the cost of credit is likely to increase. That puts a financial figure on it, as opposed to the cost to the environment and our planet.

What is missing is the ambition of the State. It needs to state we have an issue and that we will roll out retrofitting to every public authority house. What is also missing is real public transport. I cannot take a train from County Donegal to Dublin. The last time a train ran to County Donegal was in 1963. Let us consider the provision of public transport. If it was not for private operators, we would not be able to get from A to B without reliance on a car. These challenges are not laid out in the plan. The fact is there are no costings and that we are going to leave it to each Department to put forward proposals in the Estimates every year. That is not the right way to do it. We should put a cost on it and acknowledge the size and scale of the problem.