Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)

Anything the Minister states will be to the benefit of the Green Party's because we will contest the general election on his record, the mess he has created and presided over as well as his solutions, which are nothing more than face-saving exercises on the part of the Government. In the next 12 weeks, the fag-end of the Government, the Minister and his colleagues will introduce a number of strategy documents intended to review documents of the past. These will include reviews of the national spatial strategy, the climate change strategy and the White Paper on energy.

These documents will be an indictment of the Government's failure to address this issue over ten years. They are all mañana promises. The Government should be ashamed of itself and it will pay a political price for its negligence in this area. The initiatives must be bold, forward-thinking and consider matters beyond the lifetime of a single electoral cycle. The Minister does not have the nerve to do that and his party and this Government do not have the political courage to embrace these matters. The public is aware of the consequences of doing nothing.

The argument made by the Minister and the single colleague who has contributed to this debate is that the purchase of carbon credits is development aid for developing countries. This is incorrect. It is a shameful and nauseating argument after the developed world has created the problems with which the developing world must live. It is the depth of political plurality to suggest that this is the way out of a mess created by the Minister. He had the means to introduce bold measures but has almost always chosen a different route. His building regulations, the use of cavity blocks and his attempt to stymie the attempts of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown to set the highest possible standards are examples. The Minister and his Department wrote that letter and he should not deny it in this House. He stymied the attempt to set the highest possible energy efficiency standards in Irish buildings.

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