John Cregan (Limerick West, Fianna Fail)

Opposition parties tend to criticise the buying of credits. While we are perfectly within our rights to do so, I also believe it is a win-win situation. By buying credits, we are helping to meet our targets and helping emerging and Third World countries in their development.

Only in recent months many of us, including myself, have become converts and realise this is a very important issue and one that is being raised on the doorsteps as we go about our business. People are genuinely concerned. It is important to maintain a balance and that we do not compromise or stymie economic growth. We can be proud of the Government's track record of economic growth in recent years.

I wonder if the Green Party is serious when it says we should stop building roads and motorways, that enough is enough. We cannot afford to do that. We have to be responsible and the Government has been responsible in the whole area of addressing climate change. It is a balancing effort in terms of continuing our economic growth, continuing to build our infrastructure throughout the country, and maintaining and increasing employment. The Government has held the balance well in dealing with the issue.

I have just left a meeting of the Joint Committee on Environment and Local Government where the whole issue of emissions and the carbon fund was being addressed. One contributor went so far as to say nothing has been done by the Government and no progress is being made. I could not agree with that statement. When I spoke earlier I pointed out all the areas where we are succeeding in making substantial reductions.

The 2007 budget underlines the Government's commitment to tackling climate change. A range of initiatives were announced or enhanced and these will be factored into our calculations of emission reductions between now and 2012 and include a new climate change strategy. These measures include proposals for linking VRT and motor tax to carbon dioxide emissions and for enhanced mandatory emissions labelling; introduction of VRT relief for electric cars on a one-year pilot basis; abolition on excise reductions for kerosene and liquid petroleum gas used in home heating; extension of the ACI greener homes scheme by €20 million between 2007 and 2009; expansion of the ACI commercial bioheat scheme to cover the installation of technologies such as solar panels in commercial premises and for buildings in the non-commercial sector, such as community centres and sports facilities; provision of an additional €3 million to enable SEI to support small and medium sized enterprises to assess their energy usage and introduce measures to enhance energy efficiency; extension of corporation tax relief for investment in renewable energy for a further five years; new establishment grants for willow and miscanthus bioenergy crops; introduction of support of €80 per hectare for qualifying energy crops, in addition to EU support of €45 per hectare; and grant aid support for biomass harvesting machinery. That is a litany of enhancements and new initiatives that will certainly play a part in further reducing our greenhouse gas emissions. It is another example of where we are keeping the balance I mentioned earlier. Hands off our jobs — we cannot afford to lose our jobs in west Limerick or in any other part of the country.

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