Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)

Does the Minister accept that he has become the Minister for urban sprawl? Does he accept that the results of his policies are increasing our greenhouse gas emissions? Is the Minister aware that the European Environment Agency is set to use Ireland as an example of bad planning, whether it be urban sprawl, greenhouse gas emissions or children being driven to school rather than walking there? Does he accept that the UK has for many years now insisted on condensing boilers in every new home and in every refurbished home, yet the Minister is still not insisting on it here?

The Minister might find the wider issue of planning to be too much for him to handle in the short time available to him, but given that we are building at least 90,000 new homes a year, instead of putting it on the long finger, could he at least improve the building regulations now so that when it comes to 2012 he can look back and say houses are using less energy and greenhouse gas emissions are down? Why is the Minister not doing this now? Why is he not leading instead of following on climate change?

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