Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

Our target is 13 percentage points above the 1990 figures. There is no point in adding the 13 percentage points to the ten percentage points. That would be a miscalculation and I am sure that is not the Deputy's intention. The target we have to reach is ten percentage points from our present levels. We are above our target and the challenge is huge. A whole spectrum of measures is needed to reach our target. First and foremost there will be some purchase. That is a legitimate approach within the Kyoto protocol well envisaged and well operated. The prognostications of ruinous amounts of cost do not appear to be accurate in that regard. I agree with the Deputy that the central hypothesis in his supplementary question was that we have to look at a whole range of issues relating to transport and transport modes. The Government is investing and will continue to invest a vast amount of money in Transport 21. Transport 21 aims to get people out of cars and into public transport. The Deputy will accept there are settlement patterns in Ireland that are unique to Ireland and some 40% of people live in areas outside urban areas. There is a variety of other approaches that have to be looked at. I agree the challenge is huge. We have to improve the insulation levels in homes, introduce new standards for homes and, as we did in budget 2006, we have to introduce incentives for biofuels, alternative fuels and renewable energy sources. I am not in the least diminishing the extent of the challenge but the strategy which is in place is one that will get us to where we need to be.

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