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

I thank the Minister for his presentation. On the last point on apprentices and trying to train young people in the areas that we need them, to the best of my knowledge apprentices still pay college fees. These should really be cancelled. If the Minister does only one thing, he should have a word with the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, about this because there are many young working-class men and women who cannot afford the fees. The fees are very offputting if one is trying to get into some kind of training.

I do not wish to be rude to the Minister but I believe an awful lot of what he said here today is in his mind, not in the plan. That is a problem. The plan is vague and not specific about so many things. I want to concentrate on public transport and the national herd. Only yesterday the Minister welcomed an increase in fares for public transport in Dublin. That sends a completely wrong message to people. We want people to move from their cars so we can help to achieve Ireland's carbon-emissions reduction targets. The last thing we should do, if we are to achieve these, is increase the cost of public transport.

In the plan, the Minister has a target of 500,000 sustainable journeys. Could he tell us — he need not answer immediately — how many of these will be by public transport? Will most of them be by cycling and walking? The National Transport Authority plan for the greater Dublin area, released last week, estimates an increase of under 4% in the use of public transport by the end of 2042. That is astounding. It is so unambitious. It is kind of frightening to think, in respect of the climate action plan, that these are the low-ambition targets of the National Transport Authority. Will the Minister comment on the view that the ambition to have 1 million electric cars on the road is out of kilter with the idea of meeting targets in this area?

I would like the Minister to say something about the national herd. There is nothing in the plan that says we need to reduce it. Last year we increased it by 1.5% to 7.3 million cattle, be they dairy or beef. The elephant in the room is that we are not prepared to reduce the size of the national herd. A commitment that has been pointed out time and again involves the global reduction of methane emissions by 30%, yet here at home the reduction will be by only 10%. The Minister listed a number of ways of achieving the reduction but does not dare touch the herd. That is pretty shameful. I would like him to comment on it.