Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)

The Minister has to recognise that morally, as well as economically and environmentally, there is a responsibility on this country which others will watch carefully. They know that relative to other countries Ireland performs atrociously when it comes to climate change. The US, we know, is internationally the worst offender. Next, in terms of per capita emissions come Australia, New Zealand and then Ireland. When we describe ourselves as being part of the European project and so forth, we are at about twice the EU average as regards carbon emissions. That is shameful for Ireland. On the other hand, we try to present Ireland as a clean and green country. Long may that brand work for us, but it is not helped by the reality of our climate change failure. When the Minister says ours is a small amount of carbon dioxide in relation to global emissions, it is worth bearing in mind calculations which have found that perhaps 20 hours could be the equivalent of Ireland's emissions per year. That is close to a day. We have one day a year, and perhaps it is today, given that this is the day on which the Dáil has ordered its business to deal with climate change and the carbon fund.

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