Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Construction waste accounts for about 41% of our industrial emissions so it poses a very serious challenge. I visited some sights and saw the work being done to try to change the processes. I have seen large amounts of recycled material being used by those companies. They continue to do a lot of work to try to utilise more carbon-neutral processes. That being said, the actual process of making cement is very challenging. It will take a lot of work to innovate and find new practices. That is why I included Enterprise Ireland at the recent round-table discussion to try to support them with research, development and innovative practices.

Bringing all the various representatives together will be a significant challenge but we have to do it and we are very clear on that. That is why we have tailored our procurement, in terms of going for low-carbon cement, but we have to continue with that reduction because there are some easy parts to it but processing involves very hard components. We will resolve them but it will take time and support. This journey is going to be very expensive.