Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

It is not ancient history. One is talking about the past ten years and the extraordinary ramp up of improvement. If the Deputy wishes, I can go through all the transport issues but that is not the question. It is simply mendacious for the Deputy to suggest it is ancient history. That is nonsense. It is rubbish, as the Deputy knows from the way in which he is talking.

Let us deal with the facts. Deputy O'Dowd has again misrepresented precisely where we are in terms of the Kyoto Protocol. Europe as a whole must be at 8% below the 1990 level. We have to be at the 1990 level plus 13%. At present we are at 23%. That is ten percentage points ahead before the end of the indicative period, which is 2012. To suggest, therefore, in 2006 that we have somehow failed to attain a 2012 target is simply nonsense. The Deputy had some good suggestions, for example, the construction of model houses, which I would be prepared to consider. I have made it very clear time and again — we have exchanged views in this House and elsewhere — that a whole menu of policies are necessary to achieve the targets.

Looking at what has been done, we had to bring our emissions down to an average 63 million tonnes over the indicative period. We have actually come down by over 8 million over the period. We have a 7 million tonnes target to meet. I have outlined the policy changes that have been indicated which will significantly cut into that, producing savings cumulatively of more than half that distance to target amount. That has been made clear in last week's publication, the Green Paper on Energy, in which there are significant and exciting proposals for biofuels, for example, to which I am very committed. Not only are they low in emissions but they have the benefit of giving us energy security and a variety of other benefits about which Deputies know. In Ireland's Pathway to Kyoto Compliance, there are commitments to further changes. There have been very significant changes in this period.

Deputies should remember that the changes have been carried out in the most successful and rapidly growing economy in Europe. We could have expected dramatic increases. We have decoupled economic growth from the growth of emissions, something in which we can all take some pride. I reject the hypothesis put forward by Deputy O'Dowd.

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