Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

The Deputy presents all the advances made in the economy as negative. The answers to some of his questions are issues of which we should be proud. For example, our employment numbers have doubled from 1 million to 2 million people and prosperity has come with that. Ireland has one of the most modern, efficient and open economies in the world. Demand for our goods and services has gone through the roof. I will not deny this has placed a heavy burden on our transport system. Ireland, like many other countries, is grappling with the global impact of energy costs on transport and emissions. However, there are no simple solutions to this.

In Transport 21, I did not present a "more roads" solution for Dublin and other areas. I presented a €16 billion investment in public transport, a large commitment to getting people out of their cars with a resulting impact on vehicle emissions. There is clearly a major onus on manufacturers in this regard and some of them are beginning to make serious advancements in terms of better use of fuel economies in cars, lorries, trucks and even buses. As part of our energy policy, I intend that some of the new buses that will shortly begin to come on stream will be more fuel efficient vehicles in terms of the energy sources they use.

The Government has enormous commitment to energy efficiency. As a former Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, I understand the issues involved and our commitments under the Kyoto Protocol. These targets are not easy to achieve because they are, to a degree, in conflict with the demands of the burgeoning, fantastically successful modern economy which this country now enjoys, led by the policies of the Government in the past ten years. There has been a price to pay for this but we should not write it all off as negative. I am interested in whether the Green Party does not want to build roads or have people drive their cars. What does the party want?

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