Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)

The Bill before the House is an illustration of the hollowness of the Government's policies towards the environment. It underlines the empty rhetoric in which the Government engages, in terms of indulging in "green speak" and not undertaking one inch of green action. The reality is the Government has decided to renege on any responsibility towards our global environmental responsibilities. There are things we can and should be doing and are choosing not to do. Those parties which are currently in Government have decided there is a political price to pay for that. However, there is a greater political price to pay for doing nothing.

As with most issues, especially those relating to the environment, the general public is far ahead of general political thinking in this area. What we must do is take bold measures to put in place initiatives that will change the drastic nature of all the negative statistics on climate change. The only argument offered by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to date is that, as a country, we have managed to decouple our economic growth from the rise in carbon emissions. That is utter nonsense. Every country has decoupled economic growth from its carbon emission growth figures. To hide behind that hollow statistic shows how empty is the Government's position.

In the period from 1990 to 2000, this country saw a growth in its carbon emission levels of 140% while the comparable average figure for Europe was 25%.

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