Jim Glennon (Dublin North, Fianna Fail)

The acknowledgement by the World Economic Forum at Davos of Ireland's environmental achievement should be considered. A report prepared for that forum by Yale and Colombia Universities ranked Ireland tenth of 133 countries globally and seventh in the European Union for environmental achievement.

We are making rapid progress and have come a long way. However, it ill behoves us as politicians, regardless of the political gain to be accrued, to castigate the current generation of politicians. For example, Members should consider the progress made in waste collection. Moreover, Deputy Sargent shares my wish that the number of beaches in north County Dublin flying the Blue Flag would show a significant improvement. We expect that to happen and it will come about as a result of good infrastructural capital investment keeping pace with the progress being made.

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