Batt O'Keeffe (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the 2007 budget, particularly the commitment to maintaining high levels of provision for the wide range of essential public services and for its deliberate focus on those who most need the assistance of the State. I am pleased to note that it reflects the most comprehensive package of environmental measures ever announced in a budget. This package cuts across all major economic sectors and shows that the environment, particularly climate change, is a matter not just for my Department but extends across the full breadth of the Government.

Ireland supports the international efforts to tackle climate change and plays its part in the co-ordinated global response. We will meet our Kyoto target mainly through reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in our economy. We will also meet it through contributing to the cost of projects to reduce emissions elsewhere in the world, as allowed for under the protocol. The Government has announced its commitment to invest 18 million tonnes of carbon allowances during the Kyoto commitment period of 2008-12. I welcome the provision of a further €270 million to fund a programme of purchases up to 2018. This budgetary commitment underpins our support for the Kyoto Protocol and for developing countries and will allow us to meet our targets under the protocol without damaging the economy.

I am bemused by the carping of some on the Opposition benches who, despite their holier-than-thou rhetoric would have us repudiate the mechanisms laid down by Kyoto at the expense of our hard-won prosperity.

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