Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

The tragedy of this complex debate, in which I was involved when I served as Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, is that it tends to focus on small elements of the system. As a society we need to maintain our quality of life and the success of the economy while striking an environmental balance on the other side of the equation. While those two agendas are often in deep conflict, they can complement each other. We need to find ways of ensuring we achieve the targets to which we have signed up and adhere to our international responsibilities. We can do that. I will not pretend that we should do so by destroying our economy, losing jobs and diminishing the quality of life of the people.

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