Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

I welcome this timely amendment from Deputy Boyle. There has not been sufficient debate on the environmental impact of greenhouse gases and carbon emissions and minds could be focused through a closer financial examination of this issue. Recently, I read the NESC report on settlement strategy, which was withering in its conclusion that we have an unbalanced and unsustainable housing settlement pattern. It argued that we are creating dispersed, low-density and car dependent neighbourhoods. In view of the events of recent years, the report is spot on.

We delight to pay lip-service to the environment but, when it comes to real decisions on the extent to which we are willing to invest in public transport or to suppress people's appetite for scattered development, our stated commitments have not been met with practical solutions. The Minister's party won political kudos in some constituencies by playing on the demand for one-off housing. However, if he and his colleagues believed that the Kyoto Protocol commitments were important, they would not have followed that route but would have structured taxes to limit car dependent and resource intensive developments.

I am sure Deputy Boyle does not believe I could pass for a Green.

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