Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

As I said, a review of the strategy is ongoing and will be completed this year and published. Deputy Cuffe may have missed that point. The recent emissions statistics look good. They are not great but they are good. They are an improvement and they show an annual fall since 2001. I accept we must maintain that trend. Quite a number of factors have contributed to the reductions, including cleaner generation and a more efficient use of electricity, a change in industrial output specifically as a result of those closures and a reduction in livestock numbers.

In regard to the general point Deputy Cuffe made, it depends on the set of statistics at which one looks. I would be the first to accept there are lies, damn lies and statistics. If one looks at emissions per unit of GDP, which I do not believe is necessarily the most logical statistic, we are now at 54%. One can take any set of statistics one wants and put whatever construction one wishes on them.

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