Michael Mulcahy (Dublin South Central, Fianna Fail)

This House should forge ahead with a consensus on the issue of climate change. The Minister is correct to purchase these carbon tax credits, although I think he should do more of it. I agree with Deputy O'Malley when she said that is not the only thing we should be doing. We should not be doing it just to get ourselves off the hook. It is a little like the issue of overseas development aid. The UN target is 0.7% of GNP, but we should be aiming to give more as other countries are doing. I think the Minister will agree that it is not simply enough to say that we have complied with our Kyoto obligations, we should go further.

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